title: The Internet and medicine: past, present, and future.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesia, Toronto Hospital, University of Toronto, Ontario. djdoyle@inforamp.net
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Doyle
authors.forename: K J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Ruskin
authors.forename: T P
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Engel
mesh_terms: D015510:Clinical Medicine / Q000639:trends; D003195:Computer Communication Networks / Q000266:history / Q000639:trends*; D003194:Computer-Assisted Instruction / Q000639:trends; D004501:Education, Medical / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D005544:Forecasting; D049673:History, 20th Century