Bringing health-care applications to the Internet

A United States study of health-care applications in relation to Internet capabilities found distinct, if not unique, requirements for the Internet´s evolutionary development. Many health-related processes stand to be reshaped by the Internet. This paper presents a broad overview of the types of applications that the Internet can support in five areas: consumer health, clinical care, financial and administrative transactions, public health, and biomedical research. It also considers the technical challenges