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Would you like to read article summaries from leading medical journals on your home computer? Talk to international
colleagues about a particular medical dilemma? Obtain tutorial software to teach your children resuscitation? Subscribe to
an electronic mailing list on diabetes or interrogate a computerized database for physicians? Medicine and the Internet
tells you how.

This book sets out to introduce doctors and medical students to health-care information available online. Allied health
professionals will find much of the material in this book relevant to their own requirements for a general introduction to
Internet resources and terminology. If you are uncertain about the usefulness of online medicine in your practice or study,
this book will help make up your mind.

Doctors are among the growing number of people who are using modems. A modem is a device that allows you to send
information from one computer to another over cables or telephone lines. Computers and their modems can be linked
together to form networks, so that they can exchange information on a regular basis. Using a modem you can telephone
one of these networks and make use of the information stored on the computers that make up the network. Part One of this
book covers getting started with computers, modems, and the communications programs needed to make everything
happen.

Sometimes computerized information consists of electronic bulletin boards, where you can read and post electronic mail
(e-mail). Sometimes it consists of libraries of programs and other files. Those who offer this sort of facility are said to
provide an online service, as your modem connects to that service over telephone lines, making its resources available to
your computer. Part Two of the book tells you how to join an online service, what to expect, what is expected of you, and
looks at some examples of health-oriented services available in the UK.

Individual online services are, however, limited in content by comparison with the Internet. The Internet is the name for
the global network of computer networks and online services that provides a facility for worldwide communications and
links together many diverse resources. In Part Three, the Internet is introduced, including information on how to get
connected and why you might want to do so.

The Internet can be very daunting to new users in search of information for a variety of reasons. One of the secrets of
success is knowing where to look before you go looking. Part Four gets you started by examining the tools you are likely
to need.

Most readers will already be familiar with the MEDLINE bibliographic database. Part Five shows how to do a MEDLINE
search without ever going to the library.

This book doesn't avoid jargon. It is well worth the effort of familiarizing yourself with terms in common usage. Without
this familiarity, you will encounter many difficulties in understanding the language you will come across online, including that
used by those whom you ask for help. Learning the language - like learning the Latin of gross anatomy - makes universal
communication possible. Throughout the book jargon is clearly identified by bold type as it is introduced, and if a meaning
is not clear from its context you will find an additional explanation in the Glossary.

The UK has a number of unique resources which receive little or no mention in recent American books, including the Joint
Academic Network, Mailbase, non-profit-making but little publicized medical bulletin boards, meeting places for British
doctors on the CompuServe and Compulink networks, and a 'MEDLINE by modem' service. By being introduced to
these and other services, health professionals will learn how individuals and health-care organizations can access databases
and other forms of electronic information quickly and at little cost. Our patients already have access to online health
information (databases, discussion groups, mailing lists) and support forums. Within the NHS, a similar sort of facility could
be implemented on the NHS Nationwide Network. This network could further open the way for long-distance
consultations over multimedia communications links. This book introduces the technologies behind such prospects by
illustrating what individuals can do today using a personal computer.

September 1995, B.C.M.



Headings

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Table of Contents: Medicine and the Internet

CHAPTER ONE: Getting started

CHAPTER TWO: Choosing a computer system

CHAPTER THREE: Choosing a modem

CHAPTER FOUR: Choosing communications software

CHAPTER FIVE: Going online

CHAPTER SIX: Using a bulletin-board service

CHAPTER SEVEN: Making contact

CHAPTER EIGHT: Online ethics

CHAPTER NINE: Selected online services

CHAPTER TEN: Internet introduced

CHAPTER ELEVEN: What is the Internet?

CHAPTER TWELVE: What use is the Internet in medicine?

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: How do I get on the Internet?

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Selected Internet providers

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: Utilizing the Internet

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Electronic mail

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: Mailing lists

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: Usenet news

CHAPTER NINETEEN: File Transfer Protocol

CHAPTER TWENTY: Telnet

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE: Archie

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO: Gopher

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE: Wide Area Information Servers

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR: The World-Wide Web

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE: MEDLINE by modem

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The last page
Medicine and the Internet on the World-Wide Web
Glossary
Index
Quick Reference Card

T R A N S L A T I O N . O F . ' M E D I C I N E . A N D . T H E . I N T E R N E T '

Persons interested in translating this book into other languages from English are invited to contact Oxford University Press.

Cath Worrall
Oxford University Press
Walton Street
Oxford OX2 6DP

Tel: +44(0) 1865 56767
Fax: +44(0) 1865 56646
E-mail: medical.books@oup.co.uk

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