role of internet and telemedicine in modern medical practice

ABSTRACT

The revolution in the information technology has mede profound and unprecedented changes in the society and in the world of science including medical and health related sciences. With this revolution will come an enormous potential to increase efficiency of clinical, reduce human errors, and improve the quality of medical care. Moreover, electronic medical information will help to democratize medicine. So physicians and health care providers realize that they must adopt these technologies since they are going to be standards of clinical practice very soon and surveys are showing that expanding numbers of physicians and health care providers are accessing the web daily for medical information, consultations, and distant learning. This emerging environment will also have a great influence on patient eduction and will certainly affect physician-patient relationship. Actually the internet is a key influence in changing the balance of knowledge between physicians and the public,empowering patients to become more involved in health care decision-making since more patients are coming to the physicians with information from the internet about illnesses, medical treatment, and the availability of clinical trials. The most important areas are the internet, the world wide web [www] and telemedicine which begins to enter the mainstream of health care. This article focuses light on some of the applications of internet in clinical practice. It also provides some guidelines for the effective use and retrieval of medical information from the internet