OncoLink: A Cancer Information Resource for Gynecologic Oncologists and the Public on the Internet

Abstract

The Internet is a computer network accessible to over 30 million computer users worldwide. By default, it has become the “information superhighway” that is growing at an explosive rate of between 1 and 2 million new users per month. Internet contains thousands of information servers covering a bewildering array of topics. Many provide information of interest to cancer patients and healthcare professionals. Identifying the outstanding “golden” resources from the chaos is difficult. To address this problem and to provide information specific to gynecologic oncology, we developed a cancer information server called “OncoLink” at our institution that is available at no cost 24 hr per day, 7 days per week to all Internet users. OncoLink has two major goals: (1) To provide quality, original content for cancer patients and healthcare professionals and (2) to provide well-organized, consistent access to existing Internet cancer resources. This service may be used by anyone with a Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh, or UNIX computer. The service is rich in multimedia content containing text, pictures, illustrations, sound, and video. The information includes (1) original content written by authors at our institution, (2) original content submitted by authors from other institutions and, (3) publicly available information from other resources. Patient-oriented articles, physician-oriented review articles, and NIH, NCI, and FDA documents are available. All content is reviewed by an Editorial Board prior to posting. We have kept a detailed log file of each time the system has been accessed by an Internet user. OncoLink went online in March 1994. During the first 18 months (542 days) of operation, the service received 4,051,901 requests for information from 105,589 unique Internet addresses worldwide. There is tremendous public and professional demand for online cancer information via the Internet. We feel that the Internet is an outstanding vehicle for providing quality cancer information for gynecologic oncologists other healthcare professionals, and the public.