Gold Standard, American College of Physicians Enter Joint Marketing Agreement for Clinical Pharmacology, PIER Products

Business Wire, July 27, 2004

TAMPA, Fla. -- Agreement provides physicians with access to clinically-relevant drug data, evidence-based guidance at the point-of-care

Gold Standard and the American College of Physicians (ACP) have teamed together to integrate and jointly market Clinical Pharmacology(C), the industry leading interactive drug information solution, and The Physicians' Information and Education Resource (PIER), ACP's Web- and PDA-based decision support tool for physicians. PIER, a leading point-of-care, evidence-based medical information and education resource, provides authoritative guidance to improve clinical care, covering such topics as diseases, screening and prevention, complementary and alternative medicine, ethical and legal issues, procedures, and medications.

"Teaming Clinical Pharmacology with PIER arms physicians with a powerful clinical decision support tool for evidence-based guidance at the point of care, where it is most needed," said Russ Thomas, CEO of Gold Standard. "The ability to instantly access this information during the decision-making process is key to empowering physicians during the patient encounter."

Under the agreement, Gold Standard will integrate PIER into its clinical information and decision support solutions, beginning with Clinical Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacology OnHand, the Company's critically acclaimed real-time electronic drug information and medication management resources. Additionally, Gold Standard will distribute the handheld version of PIER to the 3,000 Florida Medicaid physicians utilizing the Company's wireless eMPOWERx(TM) integrated patient care system. ACP will also add Clinical Pharmacology to PIER to serve as the frontline drug resource for its physician members.

"This licensing agreement goes beyond the immediate integration of PIER into our existing products and Clinical Pharmacology into theirs; it opens the door to the development of additional new joint products in the future," said Marianne Messer, Gold Standard's Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing. "The PIER database also creates exciting new licensing opportunities for Gold Standard; for example to electronic medical record and health information systems, as well as hospitals, academia and managed care."

"PIER is one of the most robust clinical decision-making tools on the market today," said ACP Executive Vice President and CEO John Tooker, MD, MBA, FACP. "The integration of Clinical Pharmacology and PIER offers physicians an unparalleled clinical resource and access to a wide-range of relevant information to enhance patient care."

Clinical Pharmacology provides up-to-date, peer-reviewed, clinically-relevant analysis on all U.S. prescription drugs - including off-label uses and dosage - as well as herbal supplements, nutritional products and new and investigational drugs. In addition to custom licensing opportunities, it is available in a variety of delivery formats, including the Internet, for organizations' intranets, and Windows CD-ROM for PCs, laptops and networks. Clinical Pharmacology OnHand, Gold Standard's mobile drug information and medication management solution, is also available for Pocket PC and Palm operating platforms.

Leveraging wireless technology, Gold Standard's eMPOWERx application integrates Preferred Drug Lists (PDLs) and Clinical Pharmacology's drug information and interaction screening tools with real-time, patient-specific medication histories. It operates via a secure, wireless integrated Pocket PC/PCS phone to give participating healthcare providers point-of-care access to in-depth, patient-specific drug information and also provides electronic prescribing capabilities.

Available online, for Pocket PC and Palm operating platforms and via internet-connected wireless devices, PIER is a decision support tool designed for rapid point-of-care delivery of up-to-date, evidence-based clinical information and guidance for physicians. Through PIER, physicians can currently access more than 300 modules of evidence-based clinical guidance presented in a user-friendly "drill down" format. Each module features a series of guidance statements and practice recommendations, supported by more detailed levels of pertinent rationale and evidence.

About the American College of Physicians

The American College of Physicians (www.acponline.org) is the largest medical specialty organization and the second-largest physician group in the United States. ACP members include more than 116,000 internal medicine physicians (internists), related subspecialists, and medical students. Internists specialize in the prevention, detection and treatment of illness in adults.

About Gold Standard Multimedia

Tampa, Fla.-based Gold Standard is a leading developer of clinical drug information and software services. The Company's staff of highly trained healthcare professionals has extensive experience in clinical and retail pharmacy practice, electronic publishing and software development. Gold Standard's products are used by the majority of the country's largest retail pharmacy chains and consultant pharmacy organizations, over 700 hospitals, leading health information websites, in over 95 percent of U.S. pharmacy and medical schools, and by hundreds-of-thousands of healthcare professionals and consumers worldwide. Additional company information is available at www.gsm.com.