OncoLink: a multimedia oncology information resource on the Internet

Abstract

This paper describes OncoLink, the first multimedia World-Wide-Web (WWW) and gopher server focusing on cancer information for both the health care professional and the patient. OncoLink provides an internetworked hypertext and multimedia resource linking people, computers and information together in an easy to use fashion. Our objective in developing OncoLink is to provide comprehensive and timely information about many aspects of oncology for both patients and healthcare providers. Specifically, OncoLink's purposes are: (1) the rapid dissemination of information relevant to treatment of cancer and concomitant problems; (2) education of health care personnel (at all levels) in the field; (3) education of patients and families of patients who have cancer; (4) posting of clinical trials and eligibility criteria; (5) the rapid collection and dissemination of quality, peer-reviewed information pertinent to oncology in general and specific subspecialties; (6) provide a well-organized, frequently updated hypertext system to access other quality cancer information resources on the Internet. OncoLink attempts to provide one-stop shopping for the patient, healthcare provider, researcher or Internet browser searching for cancer-related information. Since its inception on March 7, 1994, OncoLink has averaged more than 36,000 accesses per month from around the world. While also accessible by text-based gopher servers, preliminary observations infer increased use of multimedia and hypertext documents over traditional text-only resources. From the large following of users, it is clear that electronic dissemination of high quality, peer-reviewed cancer information is very popular. We conclude OncoLink is both useful and has wide interest in the international community.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)