[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Page 21885]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                   WEB PORTAL ALLIANCE--ZURICH MEDNET

 Mr. GRAMS. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about a recent 
alliance which has been made between two internationally recognized 
biomedical web-portals or web-based information exchanges. This 
alliance, I believe will have a dramatic impact on the way biomedical 
information is exchanged and used in developing new medical devices, 
pharmaceutical products, and life-saving medical techniques.
  Mr. President, several weeks ago, I, along with my staff, had the 
pleasure of participating in an event hosted by the Swiss ambassador to 
the United States, Alfred DeFago, introducing the newly created 
alliance between MBBNet and Zurich MedNet.
  MBBNet, a web portal, administered by the University of Minnesota, 
together with over 900 medical biotech companies and programs, have 
been the driving forces behind the accumulation and distribution of 
medical research and open source information for academicians, medical 
professionals, and corporate researchers in Minnesota and the United 
States. Zurich MedNet shares the same history, being the largest 
medical and biotech cluster in Europe. Together these two exchanges, 
Zurich MedNet and MBBNet by electronically combining resources, are 
setting international boundaries aside and taking meaningful strides 
toward the development and improvement of medical education and 
innovative medical technologies both here in the United States and 
abroad. I am convinced that alliances like this will help shape the 
research and development strategies across all industries in the future 
and I am pleased that Minnesota has again stepped to the fore and 
provided that kind of leadership. We all stand to benefit.
  I look forward to other industries following the lead that Zurich 
MedNet and MBBNet have established, and I believe it is a positive step 
toward international cooperation others should seek to emulate. Mr. 
President, I would again like to thank Ambassador DeFago, and my 
colleagues that have helped and supported this endeavor, and I look 
forward to doing all I can to ensure the future success of this 
important alliance.

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