Year XVI -Issue. 07 - 2000

This is an especially important issue through which we inform our readers of the fact that we are in the final phase of development of a "vortal", as specialists to underline its difference from the "portal" call it. It is a non-formal difference, as "portal" defines a container that covers various sectors and is characterized by a commercial use, while the "vortal" only covers one sector in all its aspects and involvements. Once this clarification has been made, we can properly say that for more than one year our company has been programming and developing a "vortal" devoted to the international health sector. We will not illustrate here the many services we will offer, nor talk about the technological solutions that will enable operators to make the most of a certain amount of online scientific information, also because it is very easy, for those who have no ideas, to steal them from the others. Our task is to grant you that also with this new reality our editorial policy will not change. During a meeting, while illustrating us the many Internet sites devoted to health, our marketing expert underlined that we have an added value an invaluable property: the freedom to communicate with no political nor other conditioning; the freedom coming from the fact that we have not had recourse to public funding, even though that takes the company to compete in a doped market, which is certainly easier for those companies that use economic resources distributed by the state, which ultimately belong to the community. Intellectual freedom, aimed at making the most of the ethical aspects of the problems of our sector, brings about quality. This freedom is not confined within national boundaries, but ranges all over the global scientific information, underlining the potential but also the limits of the new technologies, even of those that are establishing themselves in this period in Italy, but that are already established abroad, and with which we will be directly connected. Last but not least, freedom offers a kind of information supported by the objective analysis of the statistical data taken from the results obtained from the various public and private organizations. The "vortal" will be unveiled on next 6 September in Rome, within the framework of the World Meeting of University Professors, during the meeting on "Physiopathology of mass communication", which is part of the scientific programme of Jubilee 2000. The meeting is organized by Prof. Vincenzo Mastronardi, from the department of Psychiatric Sciences of Università La Sapienza. A prestigious seat has been chosen, and it could not be otherwise, as participants are those who are most interested in having access to, and providing valid and qualified scientific information. We are conscious of proposing a high level service, not only for Italian but also international health, being supported by a background we have consolidated in the last eighteen years and by the success we have met in our contacts. This initiative is organized along with Audiogroup, international call center, which provides as well important services. We are therefore starting a new route that will not be simply virtual and will allow us to be updated and to update: this is not a wish but a certainty.