The Internet in Medicine CD is an HTML file of the proceedings of the MEDNET 96 conference entitled the Internet in Medicine. It contains 56 papers on digital medical libraries, electronic publishing in medicine, medical education, telemedicine, information policies and ethical issues, internet security, access to health and medical information, and clinical applications on the World Wide Web. Once loaded, the opening screen contains the introduction by the congress chairman; an editorial titled Bits, networks and medicine; a contents page; the Congress home page; information on the International Journal of Medical Informatics; information about the Society for the Internet in Medicine; information on MEDNET 97; and information about Elsevier Science BV, the publisher.
The format of this information, given its HTML content, would probably be better served as an accessible Web page on the Internet, rather than as a CD‐only version. The topic of the Internet and medicine is of constant interest in the medical community; and free access to anyone and everyone would be preferred to this money‐making format. The CD itself is easy to load; and the information contained therein is timely and of importance to the medical community. Medical libraries and their patrons would be the obvious consumers for this product. It is a shame that money needs to be spent to view information that could just as easily be constructed as a free Internet‐accessible Web site.
