Internet integrated in the daily medical practice within an electronic patient record

Healthcare enters the information age and professionals are finding an ever -growing role for computers in the daily practice of medicine. However, a n umber of problematic issues are associated with electronic publications, es pecially through Internet. Whilst access to any information has been improv ed, access to specific information has become more and more difficult [1], due to the lack of a general meta-knowledge allowing to structure Internet resources. Physicians have to learn and adapt themselves to computers and I nternet, but Internet has to meet the specific requirements of Healthcare. Important issues must therefore be addressed to allow a real and daily use of Internet in the medical practice. The paper discusses most of these issu es and proposes a solution developed at the University Hospital of Geneva t hat integrates an Electronic Patient Record with Internet, without compromi ses on security or on performances and that runs on standard PCs'. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.