A perspective on healthcare related web interfaces

Consumer retrieval of health information through the internet has become prevalent. In the past, physicians provided filtered health information to the consumer. However, the availability of health related information including disease specific research trends over the World Wide Web is useful for clinicians and consumers. The use of internet based health care information by clinicians and consumers have increased in recent years. Nonetheless, consumers often have difficulties in evaluating such data in a comprehensive manner. Here, we describe the current status of health care related data over the World Wide Web.     

Improving the quality of care via maintenance of certification and the Web: an early status report

Few question the need for continuous professional development throughout a physician's career, but rapid changes in health care are creating demand for physicians to acquire new knowledge, skills, and attitudes to implement quality improvement in clinical practice. The Internet and World Wide Web are technologies that have the potential to facilitate deep change in physician practice and lifelong learning. This paper describes how the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) has utilized the Web and the Internet to engage physicians in the competencies of practice-based learning and improvement and systems-based practice. Specifically, we describe how the ABIM developed and implemented Web-based practice improvement modules (PIMs) to help physicians measure and improve their clinical practice.     

Development,databases and the internet

There is now a rapidly expanding population of interlinked developmental biology databases on the World Wide Web that can be readily accessed from a desk-top PC using programs such as Netscape or Mosaic. These databases cover popular organisms (Arabidopsis, Caenorhabditis, Drosophila, zebrafish, mouse, etc.) and include gene and protein sequences, lists of mutants, information on resources and techniques, and teaching aids. More complex are databases relating domains of gene expression to embryonic anatomy and these range from existing text-based systems for specific organs such as kidney, to a massive project under development, that will cover gene expression during the whole of mouse embryogenesis. In this brief article, we review selected examples of databases currently available, look forward to what will be available soon, and explain how to gain access to the World Wide Web.     

The Internet and medicine: past,present, and future.

The enormous growth of the Internet and the World Wide Web has made these two technologies an important potential adjunct to cost-effective health care research and delivery. This article surveys some recent developments in telecommunications, networking and artificial intelligence that are likely to have a significant impact on improving the efficiency and quality of future health care. Issues discussed include: clinical record keeping on the Internet, Internet-assisted medical diagnosis, privacy and security matters, financial transactions, digital money, bandwidth concerns, multimedia (music, audio and video) information delivery via the Internet, intellectual property, and the concept of Information Philanthropy.     

Bioinformatics data distribution and integration via Web Services and XML

It is widely recognized that exchange, distribution, and integration of biological data are the keys to improve bioinformatics and genome biology in post-genomic era. However, the problem of exchanging and integrating biological data is not solved satisfactorily. The extensible Markup Language (XML) is rapidly spreading     

Current experiences with internet telepathology and possible evolution in the next generation of Internet services.

The last five years experience has definitely demonstrated the possible applications of the Internet for telepathology. They may be listed as follows: (a) teleconsultation via multimedia e-mail; (b) teleconsultation via web-based tools; (c) distant education by means of World Wide Web; (d) virtual microscope management through Web and Java interfaces; (e) real-time consultations through Internet-based videoconferencing. Such applications have led to the recognition of some important limits of the Internet, when dealing with telemedicine: (i) no guarantees on the quality of service (QoS); (ii) inadequate security and privacy; (iii) for some countries, low bandwidth and thus low responsiveness for real-time applications. Currently, there are several innovations in the world of the Internet. Different initiatives have been aimed at an amelioration of the Internet protocols, in order to have quality of service, multimedia support, security and other advanced services, together with greater bandwidth. The forthcoming Internet improvements, although induced by electronic commerce, video on demand, and other commercial needs, are of real interest also for telemedicine, because they solve the limits currently slowing down the use of Internet. When such new services will be available, telepathology applications may switch from research to daily practice in a fast way.     

XML: a lingua franca for science?

XML is a new language designed to solve one of the biggest problems of the World Wide Web: its main language, HTML, is not extensible. In this article, the authors discuss the current successes and limitations of the World Wide Web, briefly explain the basics of XML and present the benefits of using XML as a data-exchange language. Finally, they discuss real-life applications that have been developed using XML, with a focus on biology.     

Environmental biotechnology: Regulatory affairs

A selection of World Wide Web sites relevant to papers published in this issue of Current Opinion in Biotechnology.     

Plant biotechnology Biochemical engineering

A selection of World Wide Web sites relevant to papers published in this issue of Current Opinion in Biotechnology.     

Proteomics and genomics

A selection of World Wide Web sites relevant to papers published in this issue of Current Opinion in Chemical Biology.     

Creating your own medical Internet library

Many physicians struggle to keep up with new developments in their fields. The internet can provide a solution to this problem by allowing rapid access to a broad spectrum of reliable information. Becoming familiar with a few clinically relevant and freely available medical resources on the World Wide Web may enhance a physician''s efforts to provide evidence-based care on a daily basis. This article outlines a simple strategy for physicians to make the internet a useful tool.     

Web alert. Development

A selection of World Wide Web sites relevant to papers published in this issue of Current Opinion in Neurobiology.     

Chemical biotechnology pharmaceutical biotechnology. Web alert

A selection of World Wide Web sites relevant to papers published in this issue of Current Opinion in Biotechnology.     

Analytical biotechnology. Web alert

A selection of World Wide Web sites relevant to papers published in this issue of Current Opinion in Biotechnology.     

Web alert. Environmental biotechnology. Regulatory affairs

A selection of World Wide Web sites relevant to papers published in this issue of Current Opinion in Biotechnology.     

Expression vectors and delivery systems. Food BiotechnologyWeb alert

A selection of World Wide Web sites relevant to papers published in this issue of Current Opinion in Biotechnology.     

Web alert

A selection of World Wide Web sites relevant to papers published in this issue of Current Opinion in Chemical Biology.     

Nucleus and gene expression: Web alert

A selection of World Wide Web sites relevant to papers published in this issue of Current Opinion in Cell Biology.     

Macromolecular assemblages. Theory and simulation

A selection of World Wide Web sites relevant to papers published in this issue of Current Opinion in Structural Biology.     

Web alert. Proteins catalysis and regulation

A selection of World Wide Web sites relevant to reviews published in this issue of Current Opinion in Structural Biology.