TY - JOUR
T1 - The Electronic Environment
T2 - How Has It, How Will It, and How Should It Affect Us?
AU - Sarr, Michael G.
N1 - Funding Information:
Literature searchesa nd computer-assisteadn alyses are now accepted,e xpected,a nd somewhatp asse,b ut the Internet hasc reateda new field of bioinformatics. The electronic age has enabled this new field of “computational biology” to really come of age as a disciplinei n and of itself. There are two major aspects of bioinformatics:d atabaseas nd datam ining. Use of Databases.T here are many web-basedr e-sources available for bioinformatics research. One such examplei s the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI or www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)a, governmentacl ollectingh ousem aintainedb y the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health. The NCBI websitei s a collection of linked databaseasc cessibleto the public that includesa ny sequence of DNA, cDNA, and protein/protein structure published including a working draft of the human genome.F or instance,l et’s say you have identi-
PY - 2001
Y1 - 2001
N2 - Nevertheless, the future is bright and offers vastly improved communication, organization, speed of search, and efficiency enabled by the concept of digitized data entry and retrieval. The opportunities are virtually boundless and will change (and may even abolish) the paper world as we now know it. We must be prepared, keep an open mind, and constructively control the electronic environment to meet our needs - the computer should be our slave and not vice versa. As Peter Kilbridge, a pediatrician turned information technology consultant stated, "Physician's main obstacle is time . . . for any Internet application to catch on, it has to be easy to use and time efficient."3 Not all electronic applications or technologies save time, improve efficiency, or save money. The fact that it can be done electronically does not always mean that it should be done. The challenge will be to control its implementation in a rational, insightful way - for many of us, it will require thinking "outside the box.".
AB - Nevertheless, the future is bright and offers vastly improved communication, organization, speed of search, and efficiency enabled by the concept of digitized data entry and retrieval. The opportunities are virtually boundless and will change (and may even abolish) the paper world as we now know it. We must be prepared, keep an open mind, and constructively control the electronic environment to meet our needs - the computer should be our slave and not vice versa. As Peter Kilbridge, a pediatrician turned information technology consultant stated, "Physician's main obstacle is time . . . for any Internet application to catch on, it has to be easy to use and time efficient."3 Not all electronic applications or technologies save time, improve efficiency, or save money. The fact that it can be done electronically does not always mean that it should be done. The challenge will be to control its implementation in a rational, insightful way - for many of us, it will require thinking "outside the box.".
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U2 - 10.1016/S1091-255X(01)80098-6
DO - 10.1016/S1091-255X(01)80098-6
M3 - Article
C2 - 12086894
AN - SCOPUS:0035502344
SN - 1091-255X
VL - 5
SP - 572
EP - 582
JO - Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery
JF - Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery
IS - 6
ER -