Delivering health information databases on World Wide Web at the National University of Singapore

The National University of Singapore (NUS) is one of the first medical schools in Asia to exploit the use of the World Wide Web on the Internet for the delivery of health information databases. Its WWW server was established in 1993 by the NUS Biocomputing Research and User Support (BRUS) technology group in collaboration with the Computer Resource Planning committee of the Faculty of Medicine. As a result of the early recognition of the powerful platform on which health information services can be delivered worldwide, the NUS effort has been accredited with a number of Internet firsts in the area of health informatics. The following are some of the NUS achievements: NUS-NCI CancerNet on the Web. The NUS developed and implemented the first WWW version of the popular CancerNet database offered by the National Cancer Institute, NIH, USA. Health Info-Com Network Medical Newsletter. The NUS developed and implemented the first WWW version of the medical newsletter, MEDNEWS which is edited by Dr. David Dodell, USA. It is now mirrored by the University of Pennsylvania in the United States and De Montfort University, U.K. Poisons Information Database. This first WWW implementation of a database on known plant, snake and other animal toxins with directories of antivenoms, toxinologists and poisons control centers around the world is offered by the NUS Venom and Toxin Research Group. HistoNet. This is a large collection of histology specimens from the NUS Department of Anatomy. MEDISTAT. This is the first WWW implementation of a Health and Population Statistical Database which contains information for Singapore, selected Asian countries and aggregate data for world regions. The Singapore Biotechnology Database. This database features companies and organizations involved in biotechnology and related activities in Singapore. Efforts are continuing to offer more value-added health information databases on the NUS WWW server and to link the server with other top-class information centers worldwide. Our mission is to identify the National University of Singapore as a global health information hub on the Internet.