This new media, the internet, has created another new era of health care and medicine. It is believed that it plays a significant role in improving health care quality by linking practice, medical updates, and education in the same feedback loop that extends to the desktop of the health care provider and the patient.
Interdisciplinary practice conducted over a distributed network can improve the quality of health care which brings about services that provide better coordinated and integrated care to patients. The Harvard Community Health Plan participants have a media system that enables providers and patients to participate in the health care process from their homes (Harris, 15). The quality of care can be even assessed and improved upon at the point-of-service delivery by all participants in the system. They are able to use the clinical information system to effeciently compare the outcomes for patients with the same diagnosis, and similar test results, who are treated or managed in different ways. For instance, the practitioners could compare the efficacy of treating an illness with one management approach versus another. the results of such comparisons would help them identify the approach that will be the most successful and all of the practioners would then adapt that method. In the convenience of the practitioners, health care via the internet also benefits the patients, is estimated that about a third of clinical visits are for infomation that could have been provided in a more meaningful, convenient, and cost-effective manner for the patients (Harris, 23). For instance, patients often desire explanations about a minor illness or reassurance that an illness is not serious. In addition, they often want some advice about how to manage a relatively minor illness. Also, individuals and families are increasingly interested in information about how to maintain their health through diet and exercise patterns, and changes in lifestyle habits. Successfuuly addressing these various needs without a visit to the doctor would contribute to affortable and less expensive health care services. Not only a virtual visit could be made on the internet to consult your physician, an operation could also be carried out through the internet. Operations could be broadcasted live on the internet where doctors around the world contribute to the surgical procedure via the net. A 72-year-old woman has become the first patient to have an operation broadcast live on the internet (Roger Dobson). The cystectomy surgery was operated under the supervision of doctors across America and Argentina through the internet. Four Doctors at the wayne State University in Pontiac, Michigan, carried out the operation. During the operation, the surgeons communicate with the viewers, they answered questions and recieved advice regarding the surgery. In this case, the internet not only helped the surgeons who are engage in the operation to learn advice from other professionals, but also helped medical students to understand the surgical procedure and experience it lively.
Magazines for professionals in the field of telemedicine and telehealth networks are published and updated from time to time. The primary goals are to enable practitioners to use the WEB to manage computer-based patient records, facilitating input and updating, not just retrieval and review. These magazines also announce interesting developments, new internet resources, and press release in various specific fields in the medical worldThe World Wide Web guide directory also contain various related sites. There is even a Medicine Online that is a medical internet service provider for many hospitals and the medical community. At Medicine Online, there are up-to-date medical resources, information, references, and connections for just about anyone in the medical field. There are also chatrooms for practioners or medical students of various specific field to get together to exchange ideas and information. For instance, there are #occtherapy, which is a channel for the Occupational therapists, and there are conferences that are constantly going on in that chatroom. The internet not only carry tremendous amount of medicine information for the health care provides, it has the most up-dated and current information that they need.
The internet can extend the education of health professionals. The multimedia programs can be used in
medical schools to simulate real practice experiences. Medical schools could develop projects such as
"Reflective Practice" using the internet for students to gain practicum experiences. Reflective practice
is a setting designed for the task of learning a practice (Harris, 200). The practicum is carried out in
a virtual world, free of pressure, distraction, and risks of the real one. It embodies particular
ways of seeing, thinking, and doing that intend to assert the students with
increasing authority over time (Harris, 200). Knowledge must be applied in the real practice world
if its relevance is to be seen.
students would have the opportunity to apply the theory-based knowledge that they learn
from their professors in their classrooms to real life situations.
Psychiatrists are becoming more involved in the creation and use of internet-based information systems to ensure that they include adequate descriptions of psychiatric observations and other psychological data. In the clinics of psychiatry, clinical information and information about clinical treatment is being stored electronically on the internet as a means for improving the continuity and efficiency of patient care (Charters 20). The internet encourage the use of communications networks for transmitting that information. The increase availability to clinicians of psychiatric data will be paralleled by an increase in the clinical information available to patients. Health care consumers who are accustomed to accessible educational information on the internet are also likly to use the internet to access to treatment and consultation from clinicians. They will expect to be able to reach mental health providers through their electronic information gateways, and these interfaces will likely evolve from the current text-based inquiries to more sophisticated video-based consultations in which patients talk to their physicians through computers (Charters 24). The internet emphasizes the clinicians' role as information providers and it encourages the use of electronic interfaces with patients to provide better quality and less expensive services.
Just as computerized patient records, third-party payer databases, and diagnostic instruments based on artificial intelligence are all available on the internet, legal issues, consitution, and other supreme court resources are also available on the internet. Having these information on the internet at all times, lawyers can easily have access to it, and just within seconds. One of the provider of these information is FindLaw, It is a searchable database of the Supreme Court decisions since 1906. It is browsable by year and US reports volume number and searchable by citation, case title, and full text (Findlaw). This is a free service that will remain free. Cases of 1997 are already available through this service. Findlaw also provide other supreme court resources including court calendar, court rules, real audio recordings of the oral arguments, law journal, news stories, justice's biographical information, and Cornell's free e-mail update service. The most astonish part of it services is the oral recordings, they are real audio recordings of the oral arguments in key Supreme Court decisions. These are unedited recordings of the actual oral arguments (Findlaw).
Other legal related issues are found on the internet, some of these information may have a direct impact on the lawyers themselves. Law Constitution is one of the suppliers of these information. It includes legal employment resources, and the goal of this feature is to improve the process whereby lawyers develop as professionals in the law. It provides advice, guidance, and support both from the columnists and the reader, it is also a clearinghouse and have source of referral to articles, institutions, and people, and it stimulate discussions about the barriers (both internal and external) which hinder professional development and how to overcome them (Law Constitution). Readers will examine their goals, values, and skills, become aware of their options, decide which option will be most satisfying and learn how to search for a position within or outside the law. Other critical issues, include balancing work and personal life, finding suitable and enjoyable legal employment, bridging the gap between law school and law practice, getting good training, the lack of jobs and how to find one money and self satisfaction in the legal profession, and exploring non-traditional career paths. While the Supreme Court resources assist the lawyers in legal practice concerns, these critical issues may provide a guidance for them in their career, and lead them to success in the profession.
The Internet is a rapidly growing communication resource that is beginning to have an impact on medicine, psychiatry, and law. Therefore, it is essential for the physicians, the psychiatrists, and the patients to have a conceptual framework for understanding the many aspects of the internet. It is very important for physicians, psychiatrists, and lawyers to maintain effective communication of information and adust to a changing world with new roles and skills that will permit them to best serve their professional mission.
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