E-DRUG: February 3, 20 years of E-drug: 1995-2015
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On 3rd February 1995 Wilbert Bannenberg posted the idea of E-drug in a
message to people working on essential drugs. See below.
The response was very positive: at least 200 people wanted to join.
We were also glad to get professional support from Satellife
(www.healthnet.org) which has been running our e-drug messaging system ever
since. Leela McCullough and Holly Ladd (who unfortunately passed away July
2014) supported by Balazs Kosaras have been a tremendous team behind the
scenes to ensure that the E-drug servers remained operational and funded!
A small team of volunteer moderators took turns to moderate the messages for
quality, relevance and language: Kirsten Myhr, Beverley Snell, Syed
Rizwanuddin Ahmad, Richard Laing, Hilbrand Haak and Wilbert Bannenberg. Most
of them are still moderating; Douglas Ball joined us a few years ago.
In the early years, a list "Who is where on email in essential drugs?" was
maintained by E-drug. It listed where 266 e-druggers were working to promote
Access to Essential Medicines.
The number of subscribers grew rapidly:
1996 346
2000 1167
2005 2613
2010 3954
2015 4155
All e-drug messages are still available at:
http://www.essentialdrugs.org/edrug/archives.php
The number of messages (measured as number of messages in January) peaked in the
years 2000-2005:
1996 6
2000 96
2005 110
2010 46
2015 37
Although the number of e-drug messages is reducing, the number of
subscribers is still increasing (albeit slowly). Seems that nobody wants to
miss e-drug, and subscribers want to know what is happening.
E-drug also has its French counterpart E-med, which has more debates among
the subscribers. Unfortunately the Spanish version E-farmacos and the India specific
India-drug closed in 2014.
Now that E-drug has become 20 years old, our patent has expired, and there
are many more options for essential medicines promoters to use: Internet is
now easily accessible in the developing world, and social media like
Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter offer other ways to communicate.
E-drug moderators have tried re-developing the E-drug website,
but this has not been completed yet.
We need additional technical expertise and financing (E-drug runs on a zero budget!)
Last year we collated a list of list of activist and other books related to
the influence of Big Pharma and essential medicines: see
http://essentialdrugs.org/documents.php
We also started a twitter account: you can follow @essentialdrugs
However, after 20 years the moderators realize that E-drug should probably
innovate, and we should possibly reorganize ourselves.
We dont want to stop a winning horse, and will keep it going as long as
there is an audience interested to read the messages.
But maybe you, our readers, could help us develop some new ideas?
We therefore welcome ideas from our readers on the following questions:
1. how has e-drug served your needs? Can you provide examples? (responses
will be collated and presented by the moderator, if requested this can be
anonymous)
2. what do you like most about e-drug?
3. what is missing and how it can be improved?
4. any other feedback?
Please send your comments to: edrug20years@gmail.com
On behalf of all moderators,
Wilbert Bannenberg
Wilbert Bannenberg, E-drug moderator
wjb@wxs.nl; Mob +31 6 20873123; Skype: wilbertb1; Twitter: @essentialdrugs
E-Drug archives: http://www.essentialdrugs.org/edrug/archives.php
(Un) Subscribe at: http://list.healthnet.org/mailman/listinfo/e-drug
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Below the very first E-drug message of 3 February 1995
Dear all,
E-drug, issue number 1, 3 February 1995
Dear colleagues,
Communication is a basis for development. Especially health
professionals in developing countries cannot afford telephone and
fax lines. Normal postal services are too slow and unreliable.
Simple computer networks offer affordable alternatives:
electronic mail. HEALTHNET provides free communication for health
workers in developing countries using computer lines and a low-
orbit satellite.
Health professionals interested in essential drugs, however, need
to find colleagues overseas who are willing to share information,
ideas and encouragement. An organised network of essential drugs
professionals did not yet exist in the Internet. As most people
in developing countries have only access to "offline" electronic
mail, an international directory of essential drugs related email
addresses was a first priority. For nine months I have been
collecting email addresses of health professionals involved in
essential drugs and possibly useful Internet addresses. The
result is attached.
In order to upgrade this list to a more professional level, your
active cooperation is needed.
Can you please inform me:
1. whether you agree to be on this list (we plan to distribute
this list only to non-profit, essential drug professionals. If
you do not like to be mentioned, please inform me!)
2. if you agree to stay on the list, please tell me how you would
like to be described (max 3 lines of text, please).
3. whether you are willing to help expanding the list, e.g., by
sending me all email addresses of people and institutions
(related to essential drugs) that you know, but who are not yet
listed on this list.
4. all your suggestions, ideas and criticism.
Please send your feedback to: wilbertb@*****.nl
Possible future developments could include:
- the launch of an ESSENTIAL DRUG LISTSERVER: this is a central
computer where you can send all your ideas, questions and
information by email message. The computer then automatically
sends your message to all people subscribing to the list (free
of charge). This technique enables health professionals in
developing countries with access to "offline" email to
participate actively in ongoing discussions. To see an example,
subscribe to the PHARMACY MAIL EXCHANGE to get the idea; this
LISTSERVER discusses mainly "northern" pharmacy problems in
developed countries, though. We need a separate discussion group
on essential drug topics is my opinion. Offers to "host" this
LISTSERVER are welcome (needs computer space and some moderation)
- the launch of an electronic Newsletter (current working title:
E-Drugs). This would be a centrally compiled Newsletter about all
aspects of essential drugs. Subscribe to PHNFLASH published by
the Worldbank to get the idea: the newsletter highlights new
reports, courses and jobs. Readers can request more information
or full copies of reports from the same computer by sending a
simple email message. I am willing to send such a Newsletter out
on an irregular basis, but it would need more resources to make
it a regular publication.
- further development of an Essential Drug WWW homepage, Gopher,
Bulletin Board or Essential Drug Database on the Internet. As
these can only be accessed by those of us with full "online"
Internet access, it might not be a first priority for developing
countries, though. Examples: try WHO/DAP at http://www.who.ch/
or the PHARMWEB at http://www.mcc.ac.uk/pharmacy/
All your suggestions are welcome at: wilbertb@*****.nl