E-health and Internet in Medicine-A Strategic Perspective.
10.5124/jkma.2002.45.1.4
- Author:
Byung Chul CHUN
- Publication Type:Original Article
- Keywords:
Internet;
e-health;
e-mail;
World wide web;
Telemedicine;
Medical informatics;
Cybermedicine
- MeSH:
Electronic Mail;
Humans;
Illness Behavior;
Internet*;
Medical Informatics;
Prescriptions;
Telemedicine
- From:Journal of the Korean Medical Association
2002;45(1):4-16
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:Korean
-
Abstract:
The Internet is becoming increasingly important and essential in medicine. The number of health-related web sites and medical portal sites is rising exponentially in recent years. Now, ensuring that the Internet becomes a suitable and comfortable medium for supporting medical applications is a challenging task. Internet in medicine has changed the health and illness behavior of e-health consumers and the traditional doctor-patient relationship. The patients now can get more health information online and take more responsibilities for their own care (consumer empowerment). E-communication using e-mails between doctors and patients has become popular, but this kind of practice needs a proper standard guideline. Implementation of point-of-care(telemedicine), e-consultation and Internet prescription evokes ethical, medicolegal, and social issues and threatens the treaditional medical practice. It is highly recommended that the Korean doctors be familiar with the e-health and e-medicine.
