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Health Care and the Next Generation Internet
- Edward H. Shortliffe, MD, PhD
- Stanford University; Stanford, CA 94305 Note: This editorial is based in part on comments delivered by the author in testimony before the House Committee on Science, Washington, D.C., 10 September 1997. Requests for Reprints: Edward H. Shortliffe, MD, PhD, MSOB X-201, 251 Campus Drive, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305.
The Internet phenomenon-spurred on since the early 1990s by the creation of its most successful application, the World Wide Web-has had a remarkable impact on our global society in just a few years [1]. The penetration of the Internet into our homes, schools, and workplaces has arguably exceeded the rate at which earlier popular consumer technologies (such as television and video-cassette recorders) were adopted.
The world of medicine and health care has not escaped the impact of the Internet, and health-related sites are among the most frequently accessed information resources on the Web. Medical observers are rethinking the optimal methods for implementing electronic medical record systems that are based on Internet technology [2], and distribution of biomedical information through the Internet is increasingly commonplace and accepted [3]. This issue includes two articles that describe both the promise and the problems related to the expanding uses of telecommunications in health care. Grigsby and Sanders [4] summarize the burgeoning activities in the area of telemedicine, acknowledging the logistic, fiscal, and regulatory barriers that have prevented more rapid adoption of these promising methods. de Groen and colleagues [5] describe a clever Internet application that monitors for rare diseases that previously would have defied efficient or comprehensive tracking. We should anticipate many more such applications as our horizons broaden and more health care workers realize how networking infrastructure can support new and innovative biomedical applications.
Biomedicine is not a recent initiate to the world of the Internet. Medical research computers (such as the National Institutes of Health-funded SUMEX-AIM resource at Stanford University, Stanford, California) were connected to the ARPAnet (the predecessor to today's Internet) as early as the 1970s. Scientists began to realize that this marvelous, federally funded network was potentially a great boon to biomedical research and would allow collaboration …
