Intranet is a term used to define a local computer network (i.e., restricted to a small geographical area, such a an area, a building or an institution) which uses the same technology that has been developed for the Internet.
Explaining better: when the first local networks were invented, it was necessary to develop specific operating systems in order to allow the communication between the computers connected to the network. The operating system packages were usually based on the same standards used for stand-alone computers (the software that comes bundled with every computerr sold), such as UNIX, DOS and Windows. For example, one of the most succesful of network operating systems (NOS) for the DOS world has been NetWare, which was developed by an American company named Novell.
With the increasing popularization of the Internet, particularly WWW (World Wide Web), which permits the transmission and visualization of multimedia information (text, images, video and audio), a new kind of paradigm for the operation of local networks arose: the intranet. The Internet is based on a set of open (public) standards, which are called protocols. The main protocol used by Internet is TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol), but many other protocols were established which work together with TCP/IP, such as for electronic mail interchange (SMTP and MIME), file transfer (FTP), remote access (TELNET), electronic chat (IRC) the interchange of hypertext and multimedia (HTTP), etc.
Example of a multimedia medical record developed for a clinical intranet (Prototype by the Center for Biomedical Informatics, State University of Campinas, Brazil)
The operation of these protocols in a local computer network, therefore, permits the establishment of a kind of "private" internet (with a lowercase i, to differentiate it from the "real" Internet), which is exactly we are talking about. When the computer network extends to geographically distant places (what is called a wide area network, or WAN), then the intranet receives a different name: it is now an extranet. Both intranets and extranets are not public, in the sense that they usually require passwords and implement access security mechanisms. However, is usual that intranets and extranets are integrated to Internet at some point.
In the medical area, intranets and extranets have been increasingly used to for a large number of applications, such as the automation of medical offices, hospitals and laboratories, medical insurance companies, medical schools, libraries, etc. Institutions are using intranets to implement large information systems, with on-line books, manuals and guidelines, administrative information, norms, clinical guidelines and consensus, glossaries, dictionaries, data bases of drugs and other kinds of information, etc.
One of the most fascinating applications of intranets is the development of the multimedia medical record; which surely will substitute the current paper-based medical records with a WWW paradigm (see figure). This record may include not only the textual records, but also images, sounds (for example, heart murmurs) and signals (ECG), etc.
Published by:
Center for Biomedical Informatics State University of Campinas, Brazil © 1997 Renato M.E. Sabbatini |
Sponsored by:
Searle Brasil |