THE INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY - RESOURCES FOR UROLOGISTS

Global exchange of information is one of the major sources of scientif ic progress in medicine. Electronic media have recently supplemented t he standard methods of scientific communication such as congresses, bo oks Currently 30 million are part of the world-wide, exponentially gro wing network, the ''information superhighway''. Numerous resources off ered by the network are becoming increasingly useful in clinical medic ine. In Germany, three major networks are currently available: T-Onlin e/Datex-J, Compuserve and Internet. The majority of information releva nt to urologists can be found in the Internet. This information includ es medical journals that can either partly or completely be read onlin e, online library catalogs, scientific images (pathology and radiology ), and databases on urologic oncology and basic research in urology. E ven outside academic institutions access to the ''information superhig hway'' is easily available, Currently, the ''information superhighway' ' constitutes a new source of database-type information; in the near f uture, medical education, clinical consultation and worldwide cooperat ion in clinical studies will be new fields of scientific communication employing worldwide computer networks.