Feature Articles
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Title: "INFERTILITY:
Proper use of the Internet"
by: Hesham. G Al-Inany, M.D Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Cairo University, Egypt |
| Abstract Modern information technology is having a profound impact on the way researchers and clinicians exchange information. The World Wide Web (WWW) is the greatest advance in information transfer since the invention of the printing press. This article is a personal selection of certain aspects that help to make proper use of the internet in our daily life in general and in the field of infertility in particular. The internet is an example of high quality technology for both professionals and patients. Key words: infertility, internet, world wide web, communication Introduction Recent desktop computer hardware and software provide accessible way for increased academic productivity. The most striking tool nowadays is the internet. The number of users in the world has increased enormously in the last few years. The internet is a large collection of networks that are tied together so that users of any of the networks can use the network services to reach users on any of the other networks. Internet services are now available on a 24hour, 7-day a week basis (1). Once you are logged into one host, you can use the Internet to open a connection to another login, and use its services interactively (this is known as remote login or "TELNETing". It provides direct, easy and fast communication between individuals and scientific institutions. In addition, you can send electronic mail to users at any Internet site and to users on many non-Internet sites that are accessible via electronic mail. One of the major aspects of the internet is the World Wide Web (WWW). WWW is an easy service that provides data searching and retrieving. It is a hypertext based system providing the ability to move easily from any site on the network to another. With a multimedia computer other kinds of information can be grabbed as images , sounds and audiovisual documents(2 ). This article is intended to be a comprehensive guide to finding the latest information on the websites concerned with infertility . However, nothing found on the Internet can be a substitute for competent medical care provided by a qualified practitioner. Other aspects of the WWW will be discussed briefly. Medical Sites concerned with fertility Infertility websites around the world are increasing everyday using a variety of search engines. Some of these sites have very good educational content, some are useful for patient advice and consultation. Their primary aim is to stimulate information dissemination among professional workers, researchers and patients in this field (3). Care has been taken in this article to provide links only to those sites and hosts which offer accurate, medically responsible points of view that have been reviewed by qualified physicians or therapists. However, many of the sites listed below provide additional links, We would like to classify the web infertility resources into:- Information oriented sites:- These sites are valuable sources of international information exchange . They are linked to each other and to many other sites on the web. In my opinion, the best link site on the internet currently present in the field of infertility is :- http://www.ferti.net.com/ Ferti.net is a recent international information exchange site that has proven to be very useful in the transfer of information pertaining to the study and treatment of infertility. It provides monthly updated international magazine, many features such as information from ESHRE, Human Reproduction, free MEDLINE ,Congress Calendar, Special Interest, Journals, Discussion groups, Case studies and much more. It is well indexed, searchable and have great links. This site has become a valuable source of scientific information as well as an excellent forum for the discussion of a broad range of clinical and laboratory topics. It is regularly updated and will take you to what you really need. I believe it will be useful for any trainee and consultant. There is little doubt that systems like Ferti.net will flourish in the future, providing a valuable tool in the advance of fertility science. Education oriented sites: Doctors who are interested in infertility should be aware of the recent opinions and advancement in this field. There are different sites all over the world and recently put on the internet. These sites provide educational material mainly in the form of journals-online. We believe that electronic medical publishing will fundamentally dominate and the journal editors and other medical information providers are in the way to offer electronic versions of their paper-based products. You can find the following journals on line specialized in infertility. You can find abstracts of the recent issues and you can order full text paper if you want. These are:- The Journal of Fertility & Sterility: http://asrm.com/professional/fertility/FSpage.html Journal of Human Reproduction htttp://www.oup.co.uk/jnls/list/humrep/hdb The green journal in Obstetrics & Gynecology http://www-east elsevier.com/ong/menu/htm Fertility Weekly http://www.newsfile.com/1f.htm Journal of Reproductive Medicine http://www.jreprodmed.com/ Clinical-Practice oriented sites: There are any infertility organizations and societies allover the world and you can access any very rapidly through the internet. American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) http://www.asrm.com Association of Reproductive Health Proffesionals (ARHP) http://www.arhp.org International Federation of Fertility Societies (IFFS)--- http://www.mnet.fr/iffs/ The British Fertility Society (BFS) http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/ObsGyn/bfs/ Society for the Study of Reproduction (SSR) http://www.ssr.org/ American College of Obstetrians and Gynecologists http://www.acog.com Research oriented sites One of the most important advantages to any researcher is the availability of Medline search. You can access a free Medline search through:- www.biomednet.com www.medscape.com www.healthgate.com www.healthworld.com Patient Oriented sites These sites are designed mainly for patients explaining the infertility problem in simple and brief way and guiding them to different modalities of treatment. Atlanta Reproductive Health Center http://www.IVF.com Case History & Treatment Plans from Univ. of Penn. Health System, Ob/Gyn http://www.obgyn.upenn.edu/IVF/endometriosis.html PolyCystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/ObsGyn/crm/pco.htm Hospital oriented sites The world wide web provide many sites on the internet for hospitals all over the world. http://www.hospitalweb.com or http://neurowww2.mgh.harvard.edu/hospitalwebworld.html Conferences and Meetings oriented sites: It is of great importance for the physician to know the coming meetings in his specialty. Current medical conferences can be easily traced and viewed through:- http://www.homepage.holowww.com/meetf.htm http://www.inciid.org/events.html It is updated daily. All continuing conferences are indexed by location and date. Mailing Lists Fertility Information Resource List. Send mail to: travis@vais.net and put "Send Resource List" as message subject.. Infertility Mailing List (ilist). just send E-mail to:- majordomo@acpub.duke.edu with a blank Subject: line. The body of the message should contain only the words "subscribe ilist your name". Newsgroups There are two newsgroups concerned with infertility :- these are:- alt.infertility and misc.health.infertility. Chat rooms America Online has an Infertility Chat Room, every Monday at 9:15 p.m. ET. To get there: Sign onto AOL Click on People Connection Click on List Rooms Click on Private Room Type in: Infertility Click on Go Personal Preferences You can access the following other fertility sites to select the website you want :- The Fertility Information resource List http://www.vais.net/~travis/ fert.html Reproduction and Women health-Related scientific sites http://www.med.upenn.edu/~crwh/scientificsites.html New York Online Access to Health (NOAH) ---About Infertility http://www.noah/cuny.edu/pregnancy/fertility.html Regarding infertility centers, you can approach centers all over the world through:- http://www.yahoo.com/health/reproduction/infertility/clinics You can save the address of your favorite sites on a permanent bookmark in your personal P.C. If you visit certain page within a website, This particular website page can be revisited off-line and the data within this page can be reviewed, edited or copied. Other internet applications:- In our field as doctors, we may encounter certain cases that seems difficult in diagnosis and management. We have to consult someone to guide us to the right way. This time I'm inviting you to place where consultation is available for 24hours/day. http:// www.mediconsult.com When you reach there, search for the visitor information specialist and provide him with the proper data . 24hour later, you will find out the result . Communications: Telemedecine It means the use of telecommunications in the medical practice for diagnosis, monitoring and educational purpose. It involves the use of telecommunication technology as a medium for the provision of medical services to sites which are at a distance from the provider. It allows transmission of patient information's as electrocardiography, X-rays, patient record and even on-line transmission of operation. You can approach this service through:- http://www.medweb.com/telemedecine E-mail:- Electronic mail, or e-mail, is your personal connection to the world of the Net. E-mail has two distinct advantages over regular mail. The most obvious is speed. Instead of several days, your message can reach the other side of the world in hours, minutes or even seconds. The other advantage is that you'll be able to use e-mail to access databases. Many people may share the same account and to provide e-mail privacy, the internet has many servers that provide each one with a private free e-mail. You can have yours through http://www.hotmail.com Voice e-mail Internet Voice Mail is a software program that lets you send voice mail all over the Internet to anyone with e-mail address! Internet Voice Mail works like your e-mail program - just enter a person's e-mail address, record a message, and send it off. You can even add text or attach files. In a few minutes, your friend anywhere in the world can hear your voice for just the cost of your Internet connection. Electronic Greeting cards. Every one of us has a special occasion like birthday, feast, ...... These occasions require special complement. Why not to be through the internet. I'm inviting you to a special site that can provide you with a variety of FREE greeting cards. http://www.regards.com http://www.hitchhikers.net/card. they're easy and simple. Just click on to see the available images. Then select an image to send, fill out the recipient's e-main information, and add your own personal greeting message. New cards are added almost daily, so check back often. Homepage Do you want to have your own HOMEPAGE on the internet for FREE? It's now possible and very easy. Don't worry about the design, they will make it for you following your choices. They will help you alot. You can choose one of the following wonderful sites:- http:// www.geocities.com http://www.tripod.com By having your own homepage, you will have a world wide exposure, can be linked to important sites, participate in medical discussion and answer questions sent to you by patients and or colleagues. Finally, if those web pages look like they never change from one session to the next, check to see if you have a "reload" feature. the web page gets saved to the hard drive and unless you reload, you will get what you saw the last time, which is fine for some pages that don't change often In conclusion, the internet is the biggest network of information resources the world has ever seen. New sites are appearing daily. This article provides a tutorial how to access the important web resources related to infertility that the internet offers to the clinicians, teachers and researchers. References Buhle J. Medecine and the internet. What can I learn from the internet? J. Fla Med Assoc. 1996,83:9,624-627. Brettle RP. The internet and medecine:-related sites including HIV/AIDS. Int. j. STD.1997,8:2, 71-77. Tringali M, Iannucci P, Zani M. Internet and clinical medecine.An introduction to the biomedical information services availablein electonic form on the "net of all net" Recent Prog. Med.,1996,97:5,237-49. |
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Copyrights Dr. Abel Maguid Ramzy 2000 All Rights
Reserved
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2000 جميع حقوق الطبع والنشر محفوظة للدكتور هشام
العناني لعام
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