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THE INTERNET
The Internet is a worldwide network of computer networks,
where computer talk to one another using common protocols. Its origin can be
traced back to 1969 when it was developed by the Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency (DAPRA) was known as the APRANET. It
was set up principally as a military network but later expanded to
universities.
The 1990s saw companies and individuals fuel the growth of the
Internet through one of its component the World Wide Web (also known as the
Web).
The World Wide Web is the most common activity carried out on
the Internet. It is a method of communication that uses Hypertext Transfer
Protocol (HTTP). The Web consists of millions of pages of information.
On Web sites (a collection of web pages), certain words or phrases appear as a
different color from the rest and are usually underlined. This text are known
as hypertext and clicking on hypertext sends the user to another website or web
page. This feature allows the users to easily navigate the millions of pages of
information on the Web and this done using a client application called a web
browser.
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This easy accessibility of information has led to the increase
in the popularity of health websites. Healthcare professionals and members of
the general public now have access to information that they might not have had
a few years ago.
Healthcare professionals can now get hold of research material
on websites such as US Library of
Medicine, the National electronic Library
for Health and Public Health Laboratory
Service.
Consumer
Health Informatics has benefited from the Internet through consumer
health information web sites which provide users with health information,
usually about disease conditions and treatment plans. Some even goes as far as
to offer online consultations. The quality of information from these websites
however varies and some of the information is not outdated but sometimes
misleading.
Good quality websites such as WebMD are
compliant with the 8 principles
set out by the Health on the Net Foundation
and are usually accredited by the URAC and
Discern. These two organisations are involved in improving the quality
of health information that is available on the Web.
Healthcare organisations like the National
Health Service (NHS) in the UK have taken advantage of the Web to
provide not only health information but also information about itself and all
the activities it is involved in order to improve the quality of healthcare it
provides. Some of these organisations also use the Internet to provide remote
access by their staff for clinical and administrative activities.
Another activity that is carried out on the Internet is
e-commerce. Online pharmacies such as drugstore.com
and even traditional pharmacies such as CVS,
sell prescribed and non-prescribed drugs over the Internet and make use of a
mail delivery service to get the drugs purchased to the buyers. Business to
business online transactions are no longer a rarity as healthcare providers can
now purchase goods and services (anything from printing paper to heath
information systems) on the Internet.
E-mail (short for electronic mail) is probably the second most
popular activity on the Internet. The user writes a letter using an e-mail
client application such as Microsoft Outlook, sends that to another user, who
also an e-mail client (which night have a Web-based interface e.g.
Yahoo, Hotmail) to read the
letter.
The sending of the e-mail is instantaneous and the distance is
not an issue as the receiver might be on the other side of the world.
Physicians can use this the e-mail facility to communicate with patients or
other physicians. Sending encrypted e-mail messages to a secured Internet mail
server, where they can be retrieved by the recipients and decrypted, is
probably the most secure method of protecting patient confidentiality and
privacy.
Even though the rate of growth of the Internet has slowed
down, more ways on how it can be applied to improve the delivery of healthcare
are still being sought. A lot of the applications in place today are still very
much in their infancy stage an healthcare providers can only look forward to
getting more out of them when they come of age.
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