Ccm-l

CCM-L [http://www.ccm-l.org] is an international interdisciplinary forum for the discussion of topics related to the specialty of critical care medicine. The listserv's purpose is to enhance access to critical care resources and information electronically and is intended to promote clinical and academic discourse among physicians, nurses, respiratory therpaists, attorneys, physician assistants, pharmacists, nutritionists, medical ethicists, social workers and students in those respective fields.

CCM-L is the creation of critical care physician [http://www.ccm-l.org/fearless.html David Crippen MD] . At present the listserv has over 1000 members from across the globe.

History

In 1993, Dr. David Crippen [http://www.ccm-l.org/fearless3p.html] , who is known as fearless leader (FL) to the group, discovered the newly emerging Internet long before graphic interfaces, which at that time was limited to a few participants who understood the Unix language. CCM-L was born on Oct 12, 1994 out of a server in Buffalo, NY with the kind assistance of Andy Sopchak. After gaining some experience with the Anesthesiology site [http://gasnet.med.yale.edu/ GASNET] , Dr. Crippen developed and implemented an international clinical and academic resource for critical care providers. Despite changing servers three times since its inception, CCM-L has retained its membership and participation continues to grow.

Functions

Critical Care practitioners have found many uses for CCM-L, the most common and accepted are :

* A Cyber-Consult Service - critical care consultations in real time from experts around the world. Questions regarding ongoing patient care usually generate replies in hours if not minutes following presentation.
* A CCM-L Journal Club - discussion of current critical care literature.
* A CCM-L Forum - discussions of what is happening in the global medical-sociopolitical arena.