Book Review

Internet y Medicina

Luis G. Pareras
Editora Masson SA, Barcelona, Espanha, 1996
709 pg., ISBN 84-458-0450-2

Reviewed by Renato M.E. Sabbatini, PhD
Center for Biomedical Informatics of the State University of Campinas, Brazil

There are still relatively few books about Internet applications in Medicine. Most of them have been published in the USA and therefore have a strong cultural bias, which is inadequate for users of other countries. Besides that, all of them are very selective regarding the number and variety of resources which are listed, a fact that handicaps the reader wishing to search for more specialized information.

Although any printed guide on the Internet becomes obsolete in the very day it is published, they are still useful to give a more general view of the landscape to the beginner, as well as to serve as a useful listing of pointers to the most interesting or better quality sites.

The book reviewed here, "Internet y Medicina", is the first publication of its kind in the Spanish language. It is authored by Dr. Luís G. Pareras, a young Catalan physician, neurosurgeon and expert in medical informatics (email: pareras@ibm.net), who is a specialist in the applications of Internet in Medicine. According to the definition provided by the author himself, the book is  "a reference guide for taking maximum advantage of Internet medical resources", and serves not only for the begginer but also to the experimented Internet user.

The book is simply excellent, extremely complete and very well done, from the graphical point of view as in its contents. It is divided into five parts:

• I. The Revolution is Here: this section explains what is and how does the Internet work.
• II. Communication on the internet: shows the many types of applications, like eletronic mail, discussion lists, newsgroups and chats.
• III. Future Tools: discusses other tools and services, such as FTP, Telnet, Archie, Gopher, Veronica, World Wide Web (WWW), etc.
• IV. Searching Medical Resources on the Internet: explains how search tools work, like WAIS, eletronic publications, WWW automatic search, bibliographical searches via the Internet, etc.
• V. Medical Resources on the Internet: in this section, the author lists a large number of the best medical sites and resources on the Internet, divided according to specialty (neurosciences, internal medicine, surgery, oncology, AIDS, images, genetics, cardiology, pediatrics, pathological anatomy, traumatology, ginecology, anesthesiology, intensive medicine, ophtalmology, otorhynolaringology and general medical resources).

The book is well designed, containing hundreds of screen examples (unfortunately in black and white only), and a brief analytical description of the most important sites. The language used by the author permits easy comprehension and is very objective. It is a book that was sorely missed by the Internet medical aficcionados. The book is being translated to French, English and Portuguese, thus Dr. Pareras soon will be recognized all over the world by his remarkable work of compilation.

The only thing which is missing is a diskette or a CD-ROM containing HTML documents with all the links discussed throughout the book. It is very tiresome to type the long and complicated addresses listed there, and it would be just great to have the help of a well-organized set of bookmarks.

Published by: Center for Biomedical Informatics State University of Campinas Brazil © 1997 Renato M.E. Sabbatini

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