WebNet 99 Panel:
Medical Applications of the WWW
Oct. 27, 1999 at 1:30
PM
(1) General description
Medical applications are becoming
more and more important on the WWW. Recent statistics show that two in
three WWW users have visited medical WWW sites, and indeed one in three
WWW users is consulting such sites on a regular basis. There are
verifiable reports that peoples' lives have been saved due to
information on the WWW, and that the WWW is both useful for medical
specialists and laypersons.
This panel will examine some of the
most important issues facing medicine on the WWW. First, like in many
other areas, worthwhile medical information is hard to find in the
chaotic abundance of both reliable and unreliable information on the
WWW. This has lead to the establishment of medical portal servers that
act as commented access points to both regional and supra-regional
information; second, the WWW is used increasingly for preventive
medicine with techniques that vary from serious eduware to edutainment
type material; third, the WWW has become an ideal communication medium
for specialists and a grand library on new techniques in therapy; and
finally, the WWW has become an ideal instrument to support first-class
conferences on medicine.
The panel is chaired by Hermann
Maurer, chairperson of the WebNet conference series, who initiated the
first Austrian medical portal server, a server outstanding in a number
of features. Maurer sees this panel also as a test-bed to judge the
interest of WebNet participants in medical applications; its members
include Dennis Beck, director of an ambitious taskforce of the Austrian
Ministry for Health, Herbert Matthies, in charge of organizing the
"biggest ever" medical congress during Expo 2000 with some 300
(!) invited speakers, Maria Lee from the Australian CSIRO, a specialist
on sharing and re-using clinical information on the WWW, Suave
Lobodzinski from the State University of California, Long Beach, a
specialist in medical applications of the WWW, and Gita Varagoor, a
prominent member of the Houston Medical School on Medical Curriculum
Development using the WWW. Each panel member will have time for 5-7
minutes for an introductory statement: the rest of the one-hour panel
will be devoted to discussions with the audience.
(2) Statements of Panelists
Maurer (Panel Chair):
Introduction of Panel Members and
explanation of the significance of medical applications of the WWW.
General remarks about the importance of portal servers to make the
wealth of medical information and services accessible to both
laypersons and specialists.
Beck: The foundation "Healthy
Austria" and how it uses the WWW
Aims of the ambitious foundation
"Healthy Austria" and how it is using the WWW to reach a
large audience. The support of the foundation of the first Austrian
medical portal server at http://www.infomed-austria.at
and report on the program LIFE, a WWW based initiative to support
physical fitness, healthy nutrition and stress reduction using
edutainment methods.
Lee: Sharing and Re-use of
Clinical Information On the Web
Clinical incidents in general
practice can be potentially harmful, costly and even fatal. The
challenge for clinicians and health professionals is to eliminate or
at least reduce occurrence of these events to improve quality of care.
However, it has been severely limited by mechanisms for distribution
and access to such information. The development of a holistic model
which amalgamates three knowledge management methodologies
(ontological, rule-based, and causal) and case based reasoning
provides an effective platform for managing clinical incidents in
general practice. The resulting system leads health professionals to
share knowledge/experience on active and latent human failures and the
re-use of such information increases clinical safety awareness.
Lobodzinski: The WWW as archive,
communication and learning tool based on medical images
Hospitals have increased the use of
PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication Systems) and all networked
radiologists and interventional cardiologists like it. Better
software, faster networks and cheaper hardware give clinicians access
to images through the Web. In an increasingly filmless environment
sophisticated image management systems form a basis for seamlessly
integrated electronic patient records. Web based electronic teaching
file systems, image sharing with referring physicians and tele-
radiology are the best examples of fast changing applications of
medical image distribution in the health care environment. Due to
positive response from the clinicians, WWW based image distribution
has the potential for quickly becoming a primary diagnostic tool.
Matthies: The "largest
ever" medical congress and how it will use the WWW
Medicine Meets Millennium was
developed by a worldwide advisory board of scientists and health
professionals in cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO).
Providing a forum for discussions on worldwide health challenges and
prospects at the beginning of the 21st century, it will
point the way forward to a better quality of life for people
worldwide. For the first time, scientists from all medical faculties,
coming from all parts of the world, will gather and discuss in a truly
trans-disciplinary way the state of the art of medicine and health at
the end of the second millennium and, at the edge of the upcoming
third millennium, the possibilities and perspectives in medicine and
health, humankind will have in the world. Apart from the best
scientists, clinicians and health experts in their respective fields,
prominent political and economic decision-makers and representatives
of non-governmental organizations will take part in this World
Congress, thus creating a platform for the exchange of ideas and
discussion of results which they may forward to their governments and
authorities to gain the maximum benefit for sustainable health for all
in their countries. All facilities for multimedia presentations will
be available in order to provide the best platform for a colorful,
illustrative and stimulating presentation. The role of the WWW will be
pointed out.
Varagoor: The WWW as tool for a
cancer prevention curriculum
The CATCHUM (Cancer Teaching and
Curriculum Enhancement in Undergraduate Medicine) project is the only
consortium project involving all medical institutions in the state of
Texas, USA. We will discuss the use of the WWW for the dissemination
of curricular material related to cancer prevention and control with a
focus on the project during the 1998-2003 phase.
(3) Addresses of Panel Members
Prof. Dr. Hermann Maurer (Chair of
Panel)
Institute for Information
Processing and Computer Supported New Media
Graz University of Technology
Schiesstattgasse 4a
A-8010 Graz, Austrai
E-mail: hmaurer@iicm.edu
Dr. Dennis Beck
Fonds Gesundes Österreich
Mariahilfer Straße 176
1150 Wien
Austria
Tel: 01/895 04 00-10
Fax: 01/895 04 00-20
E-mail: dennis.beck@fgoe.org
Dr. Maria Lee
CSIRO Mathematical and Information
Sciences
Locked Bag 17, North Ryde
NSW 1670, Australia
E-mail: Maria.Lee@cmis.csiro.au
Prof. Dr. Slawomir M. Lobodzinski
California State University,
Electrical and Biomedical Engineering
1250 Bellflower Boulevard
Long Beach, California, 90840-5002
Tel: 001/562/985-5521
Fax: 001/562/985-5899
E-mail: slobo@engr.csulb.edu
Prof. Dr. Herbert Matthies
Hannover Medical School, Medical
Computing Center, OE 8780
D-30623 Hannover, Germany
Tel.: +49 511 532 6545
Fax : +49 511 532 2317
E-mail: Matthies.Herbert@MH-Hannover.DE
Dr. (Ed.D.) Gita Varagoor
Medical Educator, Office of
Educational Programs
University of Texas-Houston Medical School
6431 Fannin MSB G.024
Houston, Texas 77030
Tel: (713) 500-5131
Fax: (713) 500-0603
E-mail: Gita.Varagoor@uth.tmc.edu
(4) CV’s of Panel Members
MAURER, Hermann A. (Chair of
Panel)
Ph.D. from the U. of Vienna.
Academic positions in Computer at the U. of Calgary, Canada and the
U.of Karlsruhe, Germany. Full Professor at the Graz U. of Technology
since 1978. Professor for Computer Science at the U. of Auckland, New
Zealand, in 1993 and Honorary Adjunct Professor, since. Honorary
Doctorate U. of St. Petersburg, Member of the Finnish Academy of
Sciences. Author of fourteen books, over 500 scientific contributions,
and dozens of multimedia products. Holder of patent for optical
storage device. Editor-in-Chief of the Journals J.UCS and J.NCA.
Chairperson of steering committee of WebNet. Project manager of a
number of multimillion- dollar undertakings including the development
of the first second generation Web system Hyperwave and GENTLE, and
various electronic publishing projects. Main research and project
areas: networked multimedia/hypermedia system and applications thereof
including medicine, electronic publishing, and web based learning
environments.
BECK, Dennis
Born in 1965 in Lower Austria.
Study of tourism, and economy at Bad Ischl and University of Economy
in Vienna, Austria. Chief Executive Officer of the Austrian Aids
Foundation 1993-1198, Chief Executive Officer of the Foundation
"Healthy Austria" (a branch of the Austrian Federal Ministry
of Health) since 1998. Active in various national and international
organisations, responsibel for much of the funding for preventive
medicine in Austria
LEE, Maria
Dr Maria Lee is a senior research
scientist at the CSIRO Mathematical and Information Sciences, in
Sydney, Australia. She has led and worked in the knowledge-based
systems applications for the past 10 years, including intelligent
systems for managing medical information. Her recent research area
focus on information exchange protocols and ontologies for E-commerce
systems.
LOBODZINSKI, Suave
Suave Lobodzinski is a Professor of
Electrical and Biomedical Engineering at the California State
University Long Beach, Adjunct Professor of Medicine at Harbor-UCLA
Medical Center and a Principal Investigator with National Institute of
Health. His research interest include Web-based electronic patient
record, digital cardiac imaging and non-invasive diagnosis of coronary
artery disease.
MATTHIES, Herbert K.
Professor of Medical Informatics at
the Hannover Medical School where he also directs the department
"Innovative Special Projects" of the Medical Computing
Center. He has spent most of the last ten years engaged in development
of telematics applications for medical networks. He is member of the
Technical group of the sub-project "Medical Image Reference
Center" (MEDIREC) of the G8 Global Healthcare Applications
Project. Under his leadership the pilot-project "Multilingual
MEDIREC / Images of Neurological and Neuromuscular Diseases" is
being developed at the Hannover Medical School. Currently he is member
of the World Advisory Board of the World Congress on Medicine and
Health "Medicine Meets Millennium", 21 July - 31 August 2000
during the World Exposition EXPO 2000 in Hannover, Germany http://www.mh-hannover.de/mmm/index.html
VARAGOOR, Gita
Dr. Gita Varagoor is a Medical
Educator in the Office of Educational Programs in the University of
Texas-Houston Medical School. Dr. Varagoor’s responsibilities
include research on the efficacy of educational programs and
developing web-based instructional materials for medical students in
the University of Texas-Houston Medical School. Dr. Varagoor is here,
on this panel, as a representative of the CATCHUM project, which
stands for Cancer Teaching and Curriculum Enhancement in Undergraduate
Medicine, a grant funded through the National Cancer Institute in the
United States.
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