Edward J Harvey M.D., MSc, FRCSC
McGill University Health Centre
Montreal, QC

Digital imaging is here to stay- and not just because digital cameras are now so omnipresent. Every orthopaedist's patient care will be impacted by the new technology of digital radiology. New imaging modalities (spiral CT, PET/CT, total body MRI) have resulted in studies with hundreds of slices. Traditional archiving and film technologies make for bulky, awkward and difficult situations as the physician tries to sort through 60-80 sheets of out-of-order plastic in a film bag. Currently, most radiology departments are implementing digital film and archiving for all types of films and imaging. This is better known as PACS (picture archiving and communication system) although you may come to know it by many other names; the most polite being Pretty Awful Clinical Scenario.  

J.F. Myles Clough, M.D., FRCSC
Kamloops, BC

Informatics is the study of the use of information. Since most medical subjects, such as orthopaedics, deal with an overload of information, it is unfortunate that informatics is a neglected area. Most of our research effort is put into accumulating more information; in contrast, this article rather focuses on the need to use the information we have already produced in a more fruitful, objective and scientific way.  

J.F. Myles Clough, M.D., FRCSC
Kamloops, BC

Deciding what to call an orthopaedic subject is a "housekeeping" issue but none the less vital. Orthopaedics is full of synonyms and acronyms. But to search electronically, one needs a unique name or code that can be added to every piece of information that relates to that subject. Only then can one rely on searches to turn up all the information one is looking for. There already are some widely accepted codifications of medical subject matter.  

J.F. Myles Clough, M.D., FRCSC
Kamloops, BC

Many people have become so frustrated with the difficulty of finding useful orthopaedic information on the Internet that they have concluded there is not any worth the bother. While it is possible to develop the skill needed to search more effectively and find good stuff, there could be a shortcut: an index of addresses for web pages with orthopaedic content.

This article addresses the heart of my personal ambitions and philosophy about the Internet, so it should be considered in that light.  

Myles Clough, M.D., FRCSC
Clinical Instructor University of British Columbia
Kamloops, BC

In previous issues of the COA Bulletin, we have looked at two ways of finding orthopaedic information on the Internet. One article discussed using the PubMed interface to search the Medline database of journal articles (Part I). The second article explored using the textbook and index sites (Part II). Using search engines is a popular and seemingly easy way to find information on the Internet, however, it is much less predictable than the other two methods and is responsible for much of the bad press the Internet receives from serious users.