Internet developments and their significance for healthcare.

This paper reviews some recent developments in the technology of the Internet, and shows how they may affect the way in which healthcare is provided. Starting with a brief technical history of the Internet, the paper discusses some of the technical developments that have taken place or been proposed in recent years, and speculates on the realities of their adoption within the next five years. The paper also discusses trends in public accessibility to the Internet and the development of Internet services. Finally, the impact of the technological developments on the way in which new healthcare services may be provided is discussed. Our conclusions are that the growth rate in Internet access and the improvements in performance resulting from the new technologies will make the Internet the focus of many new healthcare developments, in particular in the areas of telemedicine and in communication between patient and healthcare professionals. Increasingly, the Internet will be used to convey more 'real-time' information.

Abilities of normal and reading-disabled children to combine the visual and auditory modalities with dimensions of space and time.

The effects of various combinations of modalities with the dimensions of space and time on reproduction of stimulus patterns by 162 normal and 83 reading-disabled children aged 6 to 12 yr. was studied. Scores on three subtests with three different combinations of modalities with space and time dimensions were analyzed. They were visual temporal input, vocal temporal output; auditory temporal input, vocal temporal output; and visual spatial-temporal input, vocal temporal output. Visual spatial-temporal input was superior to the other subtests. Auditory temporal input was superior to visual temporal input. There were significant differences between normal and reading-disabled subjects on each subtest so the spatial dimension gives an advantage. The spatial and temporal dimensions need to be attended to in research.