RHEUMANET - A NOVEL INTERNET-BASED RHEUMATOLOGY INFORMATION NETWORK IN GERMANY

Knowledge transfer in medicine has traditionally been achieved through personal communication, the medical literature, conferences and conti nuous medical education. However, many of these methods of communicati on have the problem of currentness, and the latest knowledge is mostly transferred with a certain delay. In particular, chronic disease mana gement is frequently burdened by missing, incomplete or delayed commun ication. We present the implementation of a novel, Internet-based info rmation system (RheumaNet) to facilitate rapid communication and infor mation transfer between the 21 German Multipurpose Arthritis Centres ( MACs). Medical information, agendas, urgent notifications, guidelines, etc., can be exchanged easily via electronic mail, fire transfer prot ocol or the World Wide Web. RheumaNet allows interactive on-line commu nication as a common platform for joint projects or remote consultatio n. It supports a set of 'core documentation' that has been used by all German MACs for several years. RheumaNet was used for the organizatio n, on-line presentation and evaluation of the 1997 annual meeting of t he German Rheumatology Society and is currently appointed to establish its public representation in the 'Web'. An on-line version of the 'Qu ality Assurance Textbook' of German rheumatology is achieved with data base-derived 'dynamic' Web pages, allowing easy access to any informat ion within it. Advances in the future include the development of on-li ne patient information bulletin boards, on-line questionnaires, the co ordination of rehabilitation and educational tools for medical student s, and professional training.