Health Information Systems and Health Communications: Narrowband and Broadband Technologies as Core Public Health Competencies
Richard Riegelman, MD, MPH, PhD and
Nancy Alfred Persily, MPH
The authors are with the School of Public Health and Health Services, The George Washington University, Washington, DC.
Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Richard Riegelman, MD, MPH, PhD, The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, Ross Hall 106, 2300 Eye St NW, Washington, DC 20037 (e-mail: sphrkr@gwumc.edu).
INTRODUCTION
THE INFORMATION REVOLUTION is affecting every aspect of healthand medicine. The race to master the Web-based tools of distanceeducation is just the beginning. We are being challenged toreexamine what we teach and how we organize what we teach inpublic health and health services education.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND PUBLIC HEALTH EDUCATION
It may be useful to think of information technology as dividedinto 2 forms: narrowband and broadband. Narrowband technologyis already revolutionizing the way we store, access, and useinformation. Text-only e-mail, the first-generation Internet,and many commonly-used health information databases can be regardedas narrowband technology. Broadband technologies are capableof . . . [Full Text]
