Internet and Pediatric Cardiology

Internet has much to offe r to health care professionals . Medline and re lated literature databases, are now available on-line. Similarly, electronic versions of journals are also available online. Many s ites dealing with various aspects of pediatric cardiology are also available. Most are aimed at the lay public, but some sites dedicated exclusively to medical professionals can alsa be found. The Internet also allows cheap and instantaneous connectivity between health care professionals through e-mail. Moreover, digital copies of images can be exchanged as e-mail attachments. Should an international pediatric cardiology database format be agreed upon, access to patient records, including imaging information, could be further s implified. Such records could potentially be entered into a single central database, in which global results for epidemiology, diagnostics, surgery, and outcome could be readily studied.