SPR ONLINE - CREATING, MAINTAINING, AND DISTRIBUTING A VIRTUAL PROFESSIONAL SOCIETY ON THE INTERNET

SPR Online (http://www.pedrad.org) is a recently developed digital rep resentation of the Society for Pediatric Radiology (SPR) that enables physicians to access pertinent information and services on the Interne t. SPR Online was organized on the basis of the five main services of the SPR, which include Administration, Patient Care, Education, Resear ch, and Meetings. For each service, related content from the SPR was d igitized and placed onto SPR Online. Usage over a 12-month period was evaluated with server log file analysis. A total of 3,209 users access ed SPR Online, viewing 11,246 pages of information. A wide variety of information was accessed, with that from the Education, Administration , and Meetings services being the most popular. Fifteen percent of use rs came from foreign countries. As a virtual professional society, SPR Online greatly enhances the power and scope of the SPR and has proved to be a popular resource, meeting the diverse information needs of an international community of pediatric radiologists.