Using the Internet Gopher Protocol to link a computerized patient record and distributed electronic resources

At Duke University Medical Center, we are developing a prototype clinical application for automated patient care plans with integrated links to electronic documents and other electronic resources. These links are implemented using the Internet Gopher Protocol, an emerging standard for distributed document search and retrieval. Use of this protocol permits storage of electronic documents in an open, nonproprietary manner. This paper discusses the architecture of the link mechanism and presents some of the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed method.