Medical data-bases-telecommunications issues in the 1980s

This paper gives a brief description of the telecommunications problems encountered when accessing medical data-bases. In the first part of the article, the authors described how the creation of a special telecommunications working group at IMA (the French MEDLINE Centre) helped to handle and solve these problems. The second part shows how French users will be able to access new European data-bases; and discusses the changes brought about by the development of networks such as TRANSPAC and EURONET. It also compares the communications costs for all access configurations.