Synapse: March 7, 1985

From 20 Years Ago:
Vol. 29, No. 21, March 7, 1985:

From syllabi accessed on tablets to journal articles read on laptops to medication apps viewed on smart phones, today’s medical students have myriad routes to medical resources on the internet.

Two decades ago, the options were more limited but by no means nonexistent, as explored in the article, “Medical Resources on the World Wide Web,” by Robert E. Kuhn. In the opening paragraph, Kuhn declared, “The Internet has transformed education by facilitating access to information. A new subsystem of the net, the World Wide Web, has expanded the knowledge cornucopia to include pictures, audio, and even video.”

Kuhn provided URLs for a variety of resources, such as anatomy and pathology atlases, radiology teaches slides, practice ER patient case files. He also explained how to explore the web. “Unlike the Internet, the Web is navigated using the mouse. It is as simple as clicking on the appropriate icon.” Elsewhere he noted, “A ‘Home Page’ is just a collection of addresses which point to a myriad of Web sites.”

At the time, access to the web was not widely available at UCSF. It was necessary to visit of the library computer rooms.

The article’s helpful information even included an invitation to get personal assistance: “Good luck, do not be afraid to explore and if you have questions or suggestions E-mail me at rekunh@itsa.ucsf.edu.”

Also from 20 years ago:
Alas, the ample medical resources available on the web at the time, as reported above, apparently did not include updates on the first season of the hit show “ER”.  Fortunately, Frederick Chen summarized the latest episode of the television program those who missed it. The episode he described, “Love’s Labor Lost”, featured Dr. Mark Green (Anthony Edwards) struggling to treat a patient with an obstetric emergency.  It is a captivating, taut hour of television. No, seriously, I’ve seen that particular episode; it really is one of the show’s best.