Informatics infrastructure for evidence-based cancer medicine

Abstract

How is cancer information exchanged among laypersons, clinical professionals, and medical researchers? High hopes for the role of computers in medical information exchange have been reflected in science fiction for decades. After at least two information technology paradigm shifts (personal computers and the Internet) and countless successful implementations of, for example, shared electronic records, knowledge bases, decision support systems, speech-to-text tools, natural language processing tools, or remote monitoring devices in a variety of medical and nonmedical settings, we are in the process of realizing these high hopes. © 2006 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc.