Guide to AAN.com
- Introduction
- Editorial Board
- New Features
- Page Layout
- The Primary Navigation Tabs
- Home
- About AAN
- Practice [In Depth]
- Education [In Depth]
- Science [In Depth]
- Advocacy [In Depth]
- eLibrary
- Foundation
- The Secondary Navigation Buttons
- What's on the Blue Bar?
- Related Resources
- Site Map
- For Further Assistance
- Final Thoughts
Introduction
Trying to get information from the Internet is like trying to drink water from a fire hose. For neurologists, the problem is not accessing information, but in retrieving relevant information, information that is pertinent to the practice of neurology.
There has been no singular source that provides neurologists with news, information, and resources on demand. Until now. The American Academy of Neurology has recently revamped its website. We hope that the newly redesigned and revitalized website will be the gateway to electronic information that can improve the practice of neurology.
The new AAN.com is a one-stop portal for breaking news in neurology, and resources to help run your practice, maintain CME, and exchange information with other neurology professionals. The new AAN website has been completely redesigned with user-friendly navigation, new features, and the ability to customize content to individual preferences. As the site grows, products and services will be added based on member feedback and needs.
This document is a guide to AAN.com.
Editorial Board
An editorial board of neurologists oversees the site. The editors are practicing physicians. They aim to bring features and tools to help you keep up-to-date with news and information in our field, meet your CME requirements, assist you in coding, billing, and reimbursement, and find out how legislation is affecting us all. The goal is to launch new items on a regular basis including columns, editorials, and educational services.
Orly Avitzur, MD, MBA, FAAN is the Editor-in-Chief (editorinchief@aan.com). Vision Statement | Bio | From the Editor-in-Chief
The AAN.com Associate Editors are:
- Advocacy: Lily Jung, MD, FAAN (advocacyeditor@aan.com) Vision Statement | Bio
Dr. Jung informs members about a myriad of advocacy initiatives from the AAN, and gives advice on how to get involved. - Education: Daniel Hier, MD, MBA, FAAN (educationeditor@aan.com) Vision Statement | Bio
Dr. Hier works to support educational resources and provide new digital resources. - Practice and Technology: Neil Busis, MD, FAAN (practiceandtechnologyeditor@aan.com) Vision Statement | Bio
Dr. Busis oversees essential practice resources (i.e., coding and practice management tools, clinical practice guidelines and more) to help members with the challenges in the daily practice of clinical neurology. - Science: John Henson, MD, FAAN (scienceeditor@aan.com) Vision Statement | Bio
Dr. Henson helps keep members up-to-date with reviews of the most important papers in disease-related, clinical, and basic neuroscience.
New Features
From the first moment you login, you are sure to notice an enhanced AAN website experience. Centralizing news from the Academy's current print offerings simplifies access to comprehensive and popular material such as Neurology® and Continuum: Lifelong Learning in Neurology®. All areas can be accessed by using an email address and password of your choosing.
Enhancements to the new website include:
- Late-breaking news to keep members informed of developments in our field and the opinions of thought leaders in neurology
- Access to a new Digital Resource Library, which delivers educational materials directly to members in the form of neuroimages, videos, photographs, and presentations
- A homepage calendar to help members stay up-to-date on conferences, meetings, and other important Academy activities
- A CME tracker to allow neurologists to maintain CME records in one place and educational opportunities to earn CME credits will be added on a regular basis
- New columns, offering practical advice in areas such as medico-legal issues
- An updated AAN Membership Directory that includes practice focus and subspecialty, comments, and photos
And finally, the site's new capability to provide feedback - directly from you - will make AAN.com a site created by members, for members, in the tradition of our journals and educational programs.
A Presidential Website Task Force worked for two years identifying areas for improvement for the site. Led by Chair Barbara Scherokman, MD, FAAN, FACP, task force members revamped the navigation structure, created a new user interface, and designed a more powerful search engine. They developed many of the tools that you currently see, and built in customization preferences so that you would be able to make the experience relevant to your needs.
Page Layout
The AAN website is designed in a modular fashion. The Web team calls these modules pods. There are several columns (usually three) on each page of varying widths, each containing one or more modules.
The home page has a unique layout. Most interior pages have a consistent three column layout:
- The leftmost column of interior pages contains an outline of resources in that section. Each phrase in the outline is a link to a subsection. Click on a phrase to go to that subsection. If the phrase has a little black triangle pointing to the right (
) it means that there are subheadings under that phrase. When you click the little black triangle, it turns into a little orange triangle that points down (
) and the outline expands to show the subheadings. - The main content is in the middle, widest column.
- The third, rightmost column contains modules that contain additional information. They often contain email links to staff members responsible for that section and to related areas or information. Remember to login: some features are only available to members.
The Primary Navigation Tabs
There are eight primary navigation tabs, one for each of the main sections of the website. They are Home, About AAN, Practice, Education, Science, Advocacy, eLibrary and Foundation. The tabs are blue when not selected and turn orange when they are selected.
The Home Page
On the left of the Home Page are the headline story of the day, some top AAN and science news stories, and links to major American Academy of Neurology publications. The middle column often has a calendar, quick links to commonly accessed AAN resources including practice guidelines, the Dendrite, member search and the online store, a Test Your Knowledge feature, and a section about the new Website Editorial Board. Sometimes this column contains late-breaking news bulletins or information about the AAN Annual Meeting. On the right are some advertisements for AAN programs.
Science News
Daily updates to the Science News pod on the home page have been a feature of AAN.com feature since the launch of the new website. Reuters and Yellowbrix abstracting services provide daily news stories about breakthroughs in neurological disease-related research and other important news of interest to neurologists. For instance, breaking stories from the general news media, the CDC, and FDA MedWatch are posted within hours of their release, permitting near real-time news alerts to the AAN membership. Individual stories are chosen each morning for posting on Science News by the editorial board members of the Science section.
Journal Access
One of the features that makes the new website unique is that members have the ability to use a single sign-on to grant them access to most electronic resources of the American Academy of Neurology. On the bottom left of the Home Page are links that take you directly to Neurology, Neurology Today®, Continuum and Neurology Now®. This is a new feature. Previously, users had to go to different web addresses to access these resources.
Neurology is the premier journal in its field and its website is a marvelous compendium of resources for the neurologist. Not only does it contain current and past issues of the print journal, but it posts some e-publications ahead of print, papers collected by topic, CME opportunities, and an excellent search function.
Neurology Today is the neurology newspaper of the American Academy of Neurology. It has relatively recently been put on line in full text format. It is a wonderful source of late-breaking neurology news and it has valuable columns such as Dr. Avitzur's In Practice column.
Continuum is now on the Web. This is a major advance. Continuum is the American Academy of Neurology's self study continuing medical education publication. It comes out six times a year and each issue is full of useful information including diagnostic and treatment outlines, clinical case studies, topic-relevant ethics cases, detailed patient management problems, and a multiple choice self assessment examination for continuing medical education.
Neurology Now is the American Academy of Neurology's patient publication. It is getting better and better. This magazine is mailed to members at their offices. This publication is very popular with our patients. It gives them a lot of information they can use to better understand and manage their conditions.
About AAN
The About AAN tab contains just what it says: information about the American Academy of Neurology. The AAN, established in 1948, is an international professional association of more than 20,000 neurologists and neuroscience professionals dedicated to providing the best possible care for patients with neurological disorders.
This area includes these subsections:
- Board of Directors
- Executive Staff
- Staff Directory
- Governance
- Committees
- Sections
- Membership Statistics
- Annual Reports
- Ethics
- Position Statements
- AEI (AAN Enterprises, Inc.)
- AAN Alliance (a member-based organization of spouses and significant others of Academy members)
- Employment Opportunities
- About Site
- Styles and Standards
Note the link to Styles and Standards. The AAN has implemented guidelines to help foster consistency in marketing and communication vehicles, including the Academy's online presence. Any written communications - digital or in print - should adhere to the AAN Writing Styles and Standards Guide booklet. The AAN also provides a primer for writers preparing content for the AAN website.
The Related Areas section on the right of the About AAN home page contains links to Pay Your Dues, Become a Member, and Get Involved with the AAN.
Practice
The Practice tab contains many of the AAN resources that are most relevant to the practicing neurologist. Resources developed by the Practice Committee and the Medical Economics and Management Committee populate the Practice area. Committee members and staff work together to develop electronic tools and resources for neurologists. Our goal is to make the Practice area the primary source of practice information for anyone who takes care of patients with neurological illness.
[Top] [The Practice Tab in Depth]
Education
The next tab is the Education tab. There are links to the Annual Meeting and Regional Conference websites, publications, online learning, and a CME transcript that automatically tracks CME obtained through the American Academy of Neurology and that can be configured to track CME from other venues as well. There are sections for students and residents, education research grants, program directors, clerkship directors, partnership opportunities, maintenance of certification, and guidelines and policy.
[Top] [The Education Tab in Depth]
Science
The Science tab contains AAN resources that are relevant to the academic neurologist and to those who follow scientific developments in neurology - whether basic, translational, or purely clinical. At the time of the Annual Meeting, we plan for this section to provide all attendees with late-breaking news and information, schedules, abstracts, etc.
[Top] [The Science Tab in Depth]
Advocacy
The Advocacy tab is the focal point for advocacy efforts of the American Academy of Neurology. It contains success stories of advocates, state resources, and focuses on certain issues. It also lists upcoming events of the many state neurologic societies, many of which are assisted in various ways by the American Academy of Neurology.
[Top] [The Advocacy Tab in Depth]
eLibrary
The eLibrary is a new feature of AAN.com. Not only does it provide a single interface to access all the major American Academy of Neurology publications, but it also contains the new Digital Resource Library, a collection of neuroimages, specimen photographs, and video clips available at no cost to AAN members.
The subsections of this area are:
- Neurology Journal
- Neurology Today
- Continuum
- AANnews
- Neurology Now
- Patient Book Series
- Digital Resource Library
- Science News (a more complete listing of articles that have appeared in the Science News pod of the home page, with a search interface)
- Virtual Annual Meeting (Webcasts-on-Demand, Audio MP3 Files, Syllabi on CD-ROM from previous annual meetings)
Foundation
The last major tab on the website is devoted to the AAN Foundation. The American Academy of Neurology Foundation (AAN Foundation) is an independent 501(c)(3) organization affiliated with the American Academy of Neurology (AAN). The Foundation exists to further the goals of the American Academy of Neurology by supporting education and research in neurology, and is dedicated to improving patient care, quality of life and public understanding of brain and other neurological disorders.
This area contains these subsections:
- About the Foundation
- Clinical Research
- Practice Research
- Giants of Neurology
- Giving to the Foundation
- Corporate Roundtable
The Secondary Navigation Buttons
You will notice secondary gray navigation buttons at the upper right margin of each page that contain links to Annual Meeting, Press Room, Membership, Market Place, Public, My Preferences, and Contact. The buttons take on an orange tint when they are selected.
Annual Meeting
For the first time, the Annual Meeting website is integrated into the main American Academy of Neurology website. Formerly, it was a separate site with separate login, navigation, etc. Now, all resources are available with single sign-on. This section is accessed by the first button of the upper gray navigation bar. It has proven invaluable to those members who are speaking at the Annual Meeting. Speakers have entered their program descriptions, faculty, time line, syllabi, slides, etc. via this area of the website. Closer to the time of the Annual Meeting, it will be the focal point for meeting information, registration, etc.
Press Room
The Press Room provides assistance to the media and understanding of latest research in neurology as well as the role of the neurologist in providing quality patient care. It supports journalists with press releases, assists them in scheduling interviews, gives them access to AAN guidelines and position statements, press kits, annual meeting press releases on scientific abstracts, and information on major AAN awards winners.
Membership
The Membership section contains these subsections: Join the AAN, Benefits of Membership, Member Search, Update Profile. Pay Dues, and Get Involved. Member Search is one of the most popular features on AAN.com. You can search by last name, by city, state/province and country, by section, by committee, click the Search Members button, and get a list of members and their contact information that fit your search criteria. It is a good way to get an up-to-date listing of AAN committee and subcommittee members. This feature is so popular that we included it in a pod on the home page.
Market Place
The AAN Market Place is the jumping off point to the Dendrite - the AAN's classified ad service, the AAN Store, and the Partners Program in which the AAN collaborates with vendors of relevant products.
Public
The Public section has links to the Neurology Now website, the Brain Matters website, the Neurology Patient Page and the AAN Patient Education Series.
My Preferences
One of the new features of the American Academy of Neurology website is the ability to update your contact information in the member directory and personalize some features of your AAN.com home page. This is all done in the My Preferences area.
User Profile. Quickly and easily update your email address and password online using the form in this section. To update your postal address, contact Member Services at memberservices@aan.com, (800) 879-1960, or (651) 695-2717 (international).
Practice Focus/Subspecialties. You can choose the practice focus and subspecialties that will appear alongside your name in the member directory. You can also determine whether to display your comments, phone number, email address and subspecialty information in the online version of the member directory that is visible to the public.
User Selected Pods. You can customize AAN.com for fast and easy access the information you use most often by determining which pods are displayed on your home page. Choose from the available topics/tools in the All Pods box by highlighting a topic/tool then clicking the downward arrow to add it to the Your Pods box. Click the upward arrow or the Reset button to delete the selections from the Your Pods field. You may choose up to two customized pods to display.
Don't Forget to Save Your Choices! When you are done customizing your preferences, click the Update User Profile button at the bottom of the page to save your preferences.
Contact
The last button on the secondary gray navigation bar is a Contact button. This can be used to ask questions, or state concerns, comments and feedback. This function is so important that it has been replicated in the blue bar underneath the main navigation tabs, where it is labeled Website Feedback. Note that when you are logged in as a member, the page automatically adds your name, address, phone, fax and e-mail to the form so that the staff knows how to reach you. There is a drop down menu to reach Member Services (the default) and members of the AAN.com editorial staff.
Don't forget to click the Submit button to send your comments!
What's on the Blue Bar?
On the blue bar underneath the eight primary navigation tabs you will see a search box, a Website Feedback link, a Login or Logout link, and, if you are logged in, another link to My Preferences.
The Search Function
The AAN.com site-wide search function is powered by Vivisimo. Innovative search engine technology hierarchically categorizes search responses to make it easier to retrieve relevant results.
Overview of Key Search Features
- Simple search interface: a text entry box and a Search button.
- A content integrator allows users to perform searches through AAN publications or PubMed from the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health, or through both sources at once.
- The search engine groups similar results together into clusters. Clusters help you see your search results by topic so you can zero in on exactly what you're looking for or discover unexpected relationships between items. Rather than scrolling through page after page, the clusters help you find results you may have missed or that were buried deep in the ranked list.
- Search results can be saved and exported as plain text, HTML, XML, or RIS citations, which is used by products such as EndNote, ProCite, or Reference Manager. This helps users revisit searches and collaborate by sharing results.
Starting Your Search
The Query Box. Type the search term(s) in the text box on the blue bar. A query can be as simple as one word or several words separated by spaces.
Execute the Search. Press Return on your keyboard or click the Search button next to the text box. Vivisimo will send your query to the search sources you requested (the default is AAN publications) and wait for them to return results. The results will then be clustered and displayed for you to browse.
Browsing the Clusters
Viewing the Contents of a Cluster. Clicking on the name of a cluster will display all of the search results that it contains in the search results area to the right of the cluster hierarchy.
Expanding a Cluster. Clicking on the little plus sign 
next to a cluster name will expand the cluster, displaying below it the clusters that it contains. If the symbol is grayed out 
, it means that the cluster does not contain any sub-clusters. In this case, clicking the little plus sign will instead display the search results that the cluster contains. Clicking on the arrow symbol 
next to a cluster will both expand it and display its contents.
Number of Search Results in a Cluster. The number displayed next to a cluster name is the number of unique search results that the cluster contains.
Extending the List of Clusters. When a list of clusters is especially long, only the beginning of the list is displayed. To show the next segment of the list, click on the More 
link at the bottom of the list of clusters.
Accessing the Results
Viewing the Results. The results are displayed to the right of the cluster hierarchy. Initially all results are listed. Clicking on the name of a cluster will filter the results to display only those contained in that cluster.
Link to a Search Result. Clicking on the title of a search result will open that result in a full window, replacing the search interface.
The URL of a Result. The URL of a search result is displayed in green at the bottom of each search result.
Finding the Source of a Result. Small gray text snippets to the right of each search result URL are links to the search engines which returned this search result, along with their ranking of the result. If the link says PubMed@NIH clicking the link will direct you to the PubMed search interface.
Searching the Clusters. To search for specific text within the search results, type the text you would like to find into the text box at the bottom of the clusters and click Go. Clusters which contain results that match the text you entered will be highlighted in yellow, as will all occurrences of this text in the list of results. Click the Remove highlighting link that appears below the Find in Clusters search box to return to the previous screen.
More Features
User Interface on the Results Page. Below a text box containing the search terms is a blue and gray bar which contains many search options.
Topics, Sources, URLs. Above Clustered Results are three choices about how to configure the clusters. Topics creates clusters by topic. Sources creates clusters by source (AAN publications or PubMed). URLs creates clusters by URL (for AAN publications or PubMed).
Selecting Sources. Source selection choices are displayed above the search results. Click on All, aan.com or Pubmed to select the search engine or group of search engines you would like your query sent to. The results from these search engines will be incorporated and then clustered as a whole.
Viewing Selected Results. Each result has a little box next to it. Click the box of the result(s) you would like to view, then click the View button. Only the checked results will be displayed. Click Select/deselect all on this page to check or uncheck all result boxes at once.
Export As. Search results can be saved and exported as plain text, HTML, XML, or RIS citations by clicking the boxes next to the desired results, picking the export format option in the dropdown menu, and clicking Export as.
Viewing Statistics About the Outcome of Your Search. To find statistics about what Vivisimo has received from each of the sources during your search, click on the Details link in the light blue header bar on the search results page. You will see a table displaying the number of search results requested and the number retrieved from each search engine queried.
Website Feedback
Click the Website Feedback link to submit feedback about AAN.com. The interface is same form as the one in the Contact section, which is described above in detail. The only difference is that the default contact address on the dropdown menu is Website Feedback.
Login and Logout
Click the Login link to login to AAN.com and enable member-only features. Enter the email address (or member ID) and password you have on file with the AAN in the Email and Password fields respectively. If you do not know or can't remember your password, select cannot remember your email or password? to have your password automatically emailed to you. If you continue to have problems logging in to AAN.com, or have additional questions, contact AAN Member Services at memberservices@aan.com, (800) 879-1960, or (651) 695-2717 (international).
Once you are logged in, this link turns into a Logout link. Click it to log off the site.
My Preferences
This link leads to the My Preferences area, which is described above in detail.
Related Resources
Although this guide's major focus is electronic resources accessible on AAN.com, there are also print and other physical resources available from the American Academy of Neurology via our website that can help you with your practice. You can browse and search through these offerings by going to the AAN Market Place.
One of the most popular resources is the Dendrite. This is a classified advertisement and event-listing service that allows one to place a variety of ads in AAN print publications as well as online. Whether you are looking for a job, have a position to fill, or looking to sell your practice, Dendrite can help.
The AAN Store offers a wide selection of educational and clinical reference tools for your neurology practice. There are member-only discounts available. The offerings are diverse and include syllabi from Annual Meetings, an excellent EMG sound synthesizer from the Mayo Clinic, coding tools, educational brain models, subscriptions to Continuum, etc.
A highlight is the 2007-2008 AAN Pocket Guidelines. This collection contains all of the pediatric and adult versions of the American Academy of Neurology guidelines and provides at-a-glance guides to effectively manage patient care. This easy-to-use spiral-bound book contains summaries of all of the evidence-based guidelines to assist and provide the best possible patient care.
Other highlights are the print coding resources. Among the most popular are the Evaluation And Management Pocket Coding Guide, which has recently been revised, and the ICD-9 for Neurologists guide, revised yearly, which is the print version of the electronic database accessible via AAN.com that was mentioned earlier in this guide.
Through the AAN Partners Program, the AAN identifies and evaluates the best values in products and services to meet members' personal and professional needs. The AAN negotiates more competitive prices than members could obtain on their own and stands behind the customer service and quality provided by each and every partnership.
Site Map
The AAN.com Site Map is accessible by clicking on a link on the bottom blue border of each page. This is a dynamically-generated outline of all the pages on AAN.com. If you can't find something by using the search function or navigation aids, look for it here.
For Further Assistance
We welcome your questions, concerns, and comments. To contact us, please use the form on the Contact page. To ensure quality customer service, select the source from the pull-down menu that can best serve your needs. For general questions about AAN.com or your membership select Member Services. To give feedback to a section editor select Education, Advocacy, Practice, or Science Editors. To relay feedback about the overall vision and strategy of the website select Editor-in-Chief. To submit feedback about the website choose Website Feedback.
Alternatively, write, call, fax, or email us:
American Academy of Neurology
1080 Montreal Avenue
Saint Paul, MN 55116
Tel: (800) 879-1960 or (651) 695-2717
Fax: (651) 695-2791
Email: memberservices@aan.com
Final Thoughts
Using the unique power of the Internet, AAN.com will provide more and more essential resources that can be accessed at the point of care. Ultimately, we hope to establish an interactive online neurologic community where we can share our insights and experiences. With your participation we can create a valuable electronic knowledge base and tool kit for anyone who diagnoses and treats patients with neurological conditions.
The AAN.com Editors
January 29, 2008