Broadsheet number 46: Internet for pathologists.
The Internet, and its most user-friendly manifestation, the World Wide Web (WWW), has undergone an exponential growth in the last few years. The volume of medical and pathology related information available has kept pace, making the Internet invaluable tool for the practising pathologist, supplementing traditional hard-copy textbooks and professional journals. E-mail, newsgroups, mailing lists, access to libraries, Medline, atlases, case studies and tutorials are only some of the additional features to which the net offers rapid access from your work-station. To make optimal use of electronic resources, a basic understanding of the hardware, software, communication protocols and information retrieval tools underlying the Internet is desirable. This paper is intended only as a brief introduction to what the Net has to offer to pathology in particular, and medicine in general, it is not meant to supplement the many excellent and more detailed reviews already available (see references). Parallel with the information explosion on the Net, concerns for the quality of posted material and possibility of misinformation have arisen. These issues will be addressed. Website addresses are given in parentheses in the text [e.g.: the website address of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (RCPA) is given as (http:/(/)www.rcpa.edu.au/)] for easy retrieval on your Web browser. Because of the constantly evolving nature of the Web, I apologise in advance if some of the listed sites are no longer current.
Weinstein
S
S
Department of Pathology, Gold Coast Hospital, Queensland, Australia.
D001315:Australia; D016208:Databases, Factual; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010336:Pathology / Q000193:education*; D012955:Societies, Medical