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Priyanka Srivastava
Besides holding a stethoscope and other surgical instruments, doctors today are quite often seen tapping the keyboard and clicking the mouse. The Internet has made it easy for them to seek the opinion of internationally acclaimed medical practitioners around the globe. And by providing quick access to medical journals, it helps them upgrade their knowledge on any particular ailment.
Over a thousand such online publications can be found at freemedicaljournals.com. Other sites like familydoctor.co.nz deal with general as well as sport- and travel-related health. Dr Dion J Martley, editor of Family Doctor, says it aims at providing reliable medical information to doctors and medical practitioners.
Dr Sanjay Sharma, neurologist from Raipur, surfs a lot to garner such information about research work in his field. For him the availability of important journals on neurology is the greatest gift of the Internet. His favourites are mediscapes.com and the New England Journal of Medicine that's backed by Massachusetts Medical Society and provides medical information particularly for doctors in developing countries. "This helps a great deal as a journal that would cost around $100 becomes easily available and is inexpensive," says Dr Sharma.
Availing of expert research is another benefit. Dr Sharma sought information on a critical issue related to muscular dystrophy from a Japanese research group online. Dr Gotto from the National Institute of Neurology, Tokyo, gave him important information on this disorder. Similarly, Dr Brown from Massachusetts General Hospital, USA, offered his opinion on motor neuron diseases.
However, time constraints have to be overcome. To discuss any disease or disorder, one has to prepare a summary of the ailment including finer details of the patient's condition. This takes around two to three hours. As Dr Dhruv Maske from Pune puts it, "The facility of seeking a second opinion online is fruitful only when the problem is correctly explained and understood by the expert on the other side."
Dr Uday Bodhankar, President, International Society of Tropical Pediatrics, goes online around eight hours a week and focuses mainly on the changing pattern of infections, recent advances in diagnostic modalities, common neonatal-pediatric emergencies and the worldwide approach in pediatric disease management: "The WHO Bulletin has the latest information in this field." Like him, Dr Naveen Thacker, Chairperson, Computers and Medicine Electronic Group of Indian Association of Pediatrics (IAP), who surfs over two hours daily, looks for the latest trends in diagnosis, medicines and management and to learn "what others are doing in various specialised fields of medical science". Dr Thacker is currently concentrating on polio eradication, medical informatics and telemedicine and finds www.who.int, www.unicef.org, www.cdc.org, www.aap.org, www.iapindia.org, www.npspindia.org and www.polioeradication.org very handy.
He acknowledges the growing use of the Internet amongst doctors but feels that it should be more affordable and accessible so that doctors in remote places can also benefit.
Online surgery
Live Webcasts of childbirth, brain surgery, etc. will soon be available to medicos, states onlinesurgery.com.
Projects are also designed to provide remote visualisation in operating theatres. In order to increase the success rate of operations like resection of the liver and pancreatic tumours, the University Department of Surgery at Manchester's project called Op3D enables "high-end graphics to be distributed across a network. A laptop client is used in the operating theatre with the image being projected onto the wall using a data projector."
With simulators getting more innovative, operation techniques can be tested without having patients risk experimental try-outs. To this end, surgical training tools can also help.
Useful Indian sites
The boom in Indian medical portals is definitely good news but it has a long way to go. Here are some interesting links for doctors to get loads of information on prescription, hospitals, medicine and diagnosis, keeping Indian requirements in view.
- Indiandoctors.com provides complete network of doctors online. Facilitates communication, has a doctor's helpline and provides information on Practice Management Software (PMS).
- Indegene.com gives information ranging from medical law to ayurvedic treatment. It aims at diagnosis relevant to Indian conditions. Includes a discussion forum and an online library listing e-journals.
- Doctorsofindia.com provides comprehensive e-journals on biomedics informatics and health sites that focus on Indian problems. Includes a reference library.
- Doctorsanywhere.com connects doctors to specialists anywhere, and has details on medical consultation in remote areas. Also facilitates chat sessions among medicos.
- Healthlibrary.com has news of peculiar ailments and their treatment, as well as (healthlibrary.com/India_file.html) information on hospitals, doctors, management, and books. The MISS-HELP section is beneficial for doctors seeking detailed information. Queries can be posted to the online medical forum.
- Indmedica.com provides platform for interaction among doctors. They also have an online consultation programme.
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