It is with a great pleasure that we thank
every one who contributed to the success of this event, the
scientific
contributers for the richness and diversity of their interventions,
the keynotes for sharing their large visions and expertises
with us, the audience, from 29 countries as far
as Kuwait, South Africa, Australia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh,
Brazil, Cameroon, New Zealand, North America, for
their cheerful participation, and also all those who gave
their
constant support to HON. The (PPT) are available
online.
MedNet
2003, the 8th Annual World Congress on the Internet and
Medicine "Internet
in Health for All", was organized by (HON) and took place
in Geneva at the
, from 4 to 7 December
2003, in connection with the(WSIS - 10-12 December
2003).
MEDNET is an annual congress
of the Society for the Internet and Medicine (SIM)
and this international
meeting brings together researchers, developers and
users of applications
of the Internet in Medicine.
MEDNET is an opportunity to review
recent developments and meet the innovators responsible,
to reflect
on ten years of the Web and how it has changed the world,
and to look ahead to bringing the benefits of new information
technologies to communities around the world. MEDNET
welcomes participants from the many disciplines, which
together
have made the Internet an important new tool for
the promotion of health.
The
theme of MEDNET 2003, "Internet
in Health for All", includes the following items included: access to
health and medical information; trustworthiness, security and
legal Issues of
online medical information; Online health
information and the consumer;
and International
cooperation in Internet
medicine.
MedNet provided a forum for the discussion
of issues in health information ethics, placing special
emphasis on trustworthiness, security and legal issues of
online medical
information.
HON was fortunate enough to have excellent keynote speakers
for each day's plenary.
- On Thursday, Richard Smith, editor
of the British Medical Journal (BMJ), presented his vision
of the
future of electronic biomedical publishing. He also
addressed ethical issues, including partnershis with pharmaceutical
companies and the role of advertising, research misconduct
and evolution of peer-review process.
- For the Friday morning session, keynote
speaker Rigo Wenning, European representative of the
P3P initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) spoke on
the topic of Online Privacy and Confidentiality.
- And on Saturday morning, "Security over
the Internet" was discussed by Professor Serge Vaudeney
of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL).
Closing the MedNet plenary on Saturday morning
was an address by Mr Guy-Olivier Segond, Special Ambassador
of the International Telecommunication Union to the World
Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and former President
of the Foundation Council of HON.
Mr Segond, who has held senier positions
throughout the Geneva government, related our work in MedNet
to the upcoming World Summit, reminding MedNet participants
that the WSIS addressed issues of equity that go beyond the
introduction oh new technologies. There were many digital
divides needing our attention, even here in Switzerland.
Countries from the South also had an important
role to play in the sharing of knowledge, among themselves
and with the developed countries of the North.
In the context of WSIS, this conference
was an opportunity for participants to contribute policy
guidelines in collaboration with a wide range of actors from
the medical
Internet community, including non-governmental, educational,
not-for-profit and commercial organizations.
The Mednet 2003 congress was accredited
by the Accreditation Council for Continuing
Medical Education (CME) of 20 credits,
acting on mandate of the AMG (Association of the doctor of
Geneva).
We cheerfully thank WorldHealthCom for the
webcasting of the MedNet plenary sessions.
Online abstracts and presentations are avalaible
solely at authors' discretion; HON could not be considered
responsible
for
their content.
HON
Foundation is a nongovernmental organization in consultative
status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council
(ECOSOC). HON Foundation introduced the first code of
ethical conduct for medical and health information on
the Internet,
the HONcode, in 1996. |
