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March 1997
Volume 61 |
Number 3
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| Web Resources
on the Internet |
Keith J. Ruskin, M.D.
Committee on Electronic Media and Information Technology
Anesthesiologists have much to gain by using the World Wide Web,
which provides access to information including practice guidelines,
abstracts and journal articles and can even be used to arrange
travel and meetings. Documents on the Web include video, sounds
and pictures, cover every topic from fiberoptic intubation to
the stock market and are accessible nearly anywhere in the world.
This article describes a small sample of the growing body of information
about academic, scientific and clinical applications now available
on the Web.
Access to Articles, Jobs, Newsletters and More
Information on the Web that may be useful for physicians includes
referral information, treatment guidelines, research results and
review articles. A few of the many resources available include
The Global Textbook
of Anesthesiology (an online textbook that includes chapters
on neurosurgical anesthesia, obstetrical anesthesia, statistics
and management of the difficult airway), Educational
Synopses in Anesthesiology and Critical Care (a peer-reviewed,
online journal of anesthesiology) and Pennsylvania State University's
eAnesthesia (a moderated, electronic case conference).
In addition, a growing number of residency programs offer information
for potential applicants and occasionally use the Web to distribute
internal information such as call schedules. These sites usually
contain a description of the department, ongoing research and
grant information, and sometimes even include a virtual tour of
the university or directions to the hospital. Graduating residents
can search for a position with one of two current job search services:
GASWORK and eAnesthesia's employment archive.
Medical societies provide services to their members on the Web.
ASA offers a comprehensive site that includes ASA committees and
officers, standards, guidelines and statements, links to other
anesthesia-related sites and much more. The Anesthesia Patient
Safety Foundation (APSF) offers an adverse-event protocol, newsletters
and videos of the anesthesia machine checkout and cricothyroidotomy.
The Society for Neurosurgical Anesthesia and Critical Care and
the Society for Ambulatory Anesthesia
(SAMBA) publish bibliographies and newsletters on their sites.
Still other societies, including SAMBA and the International Association
for the Study of Pain (IASP), maintain Web sites with features
designed for practicing physicians and laypersons as well as their
members. Typical resources include information about the Society
and its goals, scientific information and a membership application.
The IASP page, for example, contains a glossary of pain terms,
ethical guidelines for pain research in humans and animals, and
suggested pain curricula for medical and nursing schools and other
professional training programs.
Traditional printed journals are also making an appearance on
the Web. Anesthesiology,
the official journal of ASA, now offers a variety of services
on the World Wide Web. The Anesthesiology Web site makes
the journal more accessible to its readers with Medline-type searches
for journal articles. It also allows authors to obtain guidelines
for submission and track manuscripts. For the lay public, there
is a description of the role of anesthesiologists as perioperative
physicians and how they interact with patients and other health
care personnel. One interesting page contains a brief history
of anesthesiology.
Finding, Posting and Retrieving Information
One problem now facing the Web is its size. There are literally
hundreds of thousands of sites covering nearly any topic imaginable
and possibly hundreds of sites covering areas of interest to anesthesiologists.
Search engines such as Alta
Vista and Lycos continuously
prowl the Web, indexing every site that they find. Individuals
can then search for a site that contains, for example, the word
"isoflurane" in any page. Indices like Yahoo
or the GASNet Web Virtual
Library (Anesthesiology) offer lists of sites by category
(e.g., anesthesiology sites can be found under the "Medicine"
category). It is possible, however, to miss important information
simply because it was indexed under a different specialty. One
interesting solution to this problem is the Virtual
Anaesthesia Textbook, which has dozens of volunteers who regularly
search the Web. These volunteers look for sites with information
about a particular area that meet standards of quality and reliability,
and organize them into "chapters."
The Internet is still a relatively new development that has already
begun to change the way in which medical information is exchanged.
New capabilities and services are being added to the Web almost
daily. Technology under development includes new ways of presenting
information and making more efficient use of limited resources.
For example, new data compression techniques speed information
transfers across the Internet and make it possible to rapidly
download a sound or a movie over the Web. Internet broadcasting
is making an appearance, and it is now possible to get ASA/APSF
patient safety videotapes (or live broadcasts of sporting events)
over an ordinary modem.
Physicians are using widely available, inexpensive teleconferencing
software to hold "virtual meetings." One such program
(CUSeeMe, White Pine Software, Nashua, NH) was used to broadcast
the E.A. Rovenstine Lecture from the ASA Annual Meeting in New
Orleans, Louisiana, last October. Java, a new programming language,
is used to create applications that run on nearly any computer
and allows interactive documents to be created that include anything
from an embedded blood gas calculator to sophisticated applications
such as an Internet-based patient simulator.
In conclusion, physicians are just beginning to tap the potential
of the Web. It allows anyone to collaborate on projects without
regard to time zones or location and offers a unique opportunity
to create a truly global specialty. The Web will play an increasingly
important role in medical education, research and clinical practice.
The Internet is growing at an amazing pace and new resources are
continually being added. These resources offer new ways to learn
and to communicate with our colleagues, and they will almost certainly
affect the way we practice.
Web Resources: A Very Brief List
While a complete review of all Internet resources of interest
to physicians is nearly impossible, the practical resources described
here provide starting points for further exploration.
| Resource |
Description |
| Anesthesiology
and Critical Care Resources on the Internet |
This is another comprehensive listing,
complete with descriptions of each resource and a "Pick
of the Week." |
| Virtual
Anaesthesia Textbook |
A list of Web sites of interest to anesthesiologists,
organized into "chapters." |
| World
Wide Web Virtual Library: Anesthesiology |
A comprehensive listing of all known resources
of interest to anesthesiologists. |
| Journal
Anesthesiology |
Information about the journal, online
abstracts of volumes 95 and 96, and Guidelines for Authors. |
| ASA
Web Site |
Information about the Society, sections
for both laypersons and members; includes full text
of the ASA NEWSLETTER and other ASA publications. |
| GASNet
Anesthesiology Web Site |
Maintained by the author; includes abstracts
of journal articles, Educational Synopses in Anesthesiology
and Critical Care Medicine, an online journal and The
Global Textbook of Anesthesiology. |
| GASWORK |
Maintained by Paul Martin, M.D.; a free
job placement service. |
| Grateful Med Internet Searches |
Index Medicus literature searches. NOTE:
A fee is charged by the National Library of Medicine
for this service. |
| Penn State eAnesthesia |
Maintained by Jeffrey M. Taekman, M.D.;
includes a moderated, electronic anesthesia case conference
and an anesthesia employment archive. |
| International
Association for the Study of Pain |
Information about the IASP and information
about acute and chronic pain. |
| Society
for Ambulatory Anesthesia |
Information about SAMBA and links to ambulatory
anesthesia resources. |
| Alta-Vista |
A comprehensive listing of more than 30
million pages on 225,000 servers worldwide, with powerful
search capabilities; essential for locating a particular
resource. |
| Yahoo |
A comprehensive listing of hundreds of
thousands of Internet resources, organized by topic;
an ideal starting point. |
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Keith J. Ruskin, M.D., is Assistant Professor
of Anesthesiology at Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven,
Connecticut. He has served as GASNet™ (Global Anesthesiology
Server Network) administrator since the anesthesia-specific listserv
was created in 1994.
E-mail the author.
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