J Korean Med Assoc.  2002 Jan;45(1):4-16. 10.5124/jkma.2002.45.1.4.

E-health and Internet in Medicine-A Strategic Perspective

• Chun BC

• KMID: 2347645
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.5124/jkma.2002.45.1.4

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.

Keyword

Internet; e-health; e-mail; World wide web; Telemedicine; Medical informatics; Cybermedicine

MeSH Terms

Electronic Mail
Humans
Illness Behavior
Internet*
Medical Informatics
Prescriptions
Telemedicine