PHILADELPHIA, November 7, 2006 -- The South Central Chapter of the Medical Library Association named ACP's Physician's Information and Education Resource (PIER) as the leading evidence-based medicine point-of-care tool.

The study, "Systematic Evaluation for Evidence-Based Medicine Tools for Point-of-Care," rated PIER highest in all four categories (general information, content, searching ability, and results) of the evaluation compared to 13 other major evidence-based medicine resources.

"Earning this distinction is a testament of how valuable PIER is to our members, and how hard we've worked to make it that way," said John Tooker, MD, MBA, FACP, Executive Vice President/CEO, ACP. "PIER continues to grow and evolve, and we're proud of its capacity to provide authoritative, evidence-based guidance to improve clinical care."

In addition to receiving the highest composite rating, PIER ranked first in all three subcategories (characteristics of evidence, importance, and level of content and features). The top grade given by the South Central Chapter is significant, as the national organization represents more than 1,100 institutions in the health sciences information field.

PIER is a point-of-care, Web-based decision-support tool that contains 425 modules that provide guidance and information on more than 300 diseases and conditions. PIER modules also contain information on ethical and legal issues, complementary and alternative medicine, and screening, prevention and procedures.

In addition to regular features, PIER recently added two new resources. "Quality Measures" help physicians understand and navigate the "starter set" of measures for assessing and improving ambulatory care. "Clinical Presentations" are modules designed to help clinicians review differential diagnoses of symptoms and laboratory abnormalities.