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Automatic system for ranking of educational health care related web resources based on quality criteria was developed. Automatic retrieval of new web resources from well-known directories followed by their automatic evaluation is a keystone of the system. The system provides this information: a) location of the resource and its author, b) number of back links to the resource, c) checks presence of electronic labels of quality. Currently the system encompasses more than 500 links to educational web resources divided into 47 medical specialities. The resources in all categories are ranked according to their link popularity, the electronic labels of quality are presented. History of link popularity is recorded and might be displayed at every resource. There are 2 language editions. The system operates automatically, the editors check and correct the retrieved values. The described system adds to webcite indexing criteria for objective evaluation of quality of webpages. It is useful for the selection of optimum education resources in health care.

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BACKGROUND: Distance education is instructional delivery that does not constrain the student to be physically present in the same location as the instructor. The electronic distance learning called e-learning has evolved with the development of computer technologies and electronic communication. PURPOSE: Before setting the distance way of teaching as a standard part of medical schools' curricula, the impact of number of factors on the effectiveness of this way of teaching should be considered. METHODS: A group of 38 students went through a distance course of medical informatics. The course consisted of 10 lessons. At the end of the course the students sat for a final test that contained 60 multiple-choice test questions. There was always one correct answer. Time limit for test completion was 60 minutes. After 12 months, 31 students from the original group sat for the same test. The topics of the course were not repeated in the meantime. The students were not aware that their knowledge would be tested after 1 year. RESULTS: The average retention of knowledge expressed as a percentage of the students' performance in the first test was 66.8%. The knowledge retention correlated significantly with the statement "I liked the online course more than the classroom course" and positively with the number of hours spent with the computer weekly. CONCLUSIONS: Retention of knowledge after the electronic distance course after 12 months is close to 67%. Other results indicate that we can expect better retention of knowledge from independent, responsible, and positively motivated students who can easily operate information technologies.

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The authors present an account on the historical development of the most important contemporary information network INTERNET from its beginnings in the sixties to the present time. They explain the historical circumstances of its development, elucidate its character and describe the creation and fusion of all main information networks during the seventies, eighties and nineties up to their present shape. They deal with the contemporary organizational structure of INTERNET, safety and reliability of transmitted information and values of its services. They explain terms like E-mail, Web, multimedia and discussion fora and describe how to join this gigantic information network in practice.

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The authors present an account of all contemporary possibilities to use Internet in medicine. They summarize the advantages and disadvantages of electronic mail (E-mail) and give a list of services available via the World Wide WEb: the possibility to inspect more than seventy medical journals, consult books and specialized databases and acquire further medical training. They demonstrate actual possibilities how to use Internet in everyday medical practice. The authors present also data indicating the general scope of Internet and its application in medical sciences. In the conclusion the authors reflect on the future application of Internet and point out some risks which may interfere with or threaten in the near and remote future the use of Internet.

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The Cochrane Collaboration is an international organization that aims to help people make well-informed decisions about healthcare by preparing, maintaining and promoting the accessibility of systematic reviews of the effects of healthcare interventions. It is a non-profit organization. The main work of the Collaboration is done by about fifty Collaborative Review Groups, within which Cochrane Reviews are prepared and maintained. The members of these groups share an interest in generating reliable, up-to-date evidence relevant to the prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of particular health problems or groups of problems.

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The paper gives an objective sight on extent variety of submitted statistical packages. It's especially evaluated range and quality of statistical methods, user environment and graphical facility of software. The paper brings information which is dispersed in many sources and therefore is hardly accessible.

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The actual state of the is connected some problems. The rules for the creation tests from the viewpoint of logics of questions and formal structure are mostly not respected. The mentioned rules are prepared in the field of theoretical pedagogics, but did not entered until now enough in the medical education. The result is the lower relevance of the tests in terms of their validity and reliability. In the paper is presented the set of principles for the correct structure of questions and in the same time the classification of the multiple-choice tests with the rules of their creation.

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In a group of 89 children with abnormal reactions after administration of the mixed vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough, after the mixed vaccine against diphtheria and tetanus, the live measles vaccine and oral poliovaccine, a detailed analysis was made of the case-history, and basic parameters of cellular and humoral immunity were examined. In these children the intensity of post-vaccination reactions was beyond the range of accepted criteria of mild and medium reactions or complications. In 17.3% of the children with an abnormal reaction after the mixed vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough a reduced IgA level was proved, while in the control group a reduced level was found only in 3.3%. 50% of the children who developed an abnormal reaction after the oral poliovaccine and the mixed vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough and at the same time some relative suffered from clinical signs of atopia, a reduced number of E rosettes of lymphocytes was recorded. 80% of the children who developed an abnormal reaction after the measles vaccine and some relative suffered from atopic disease, had low titres of specific antibodies against tetanic toxoid. Evidence was provided that children with certain precisely defined abnormal reactions after vaccination suffered significantly more frequently from reduced immune reactivity than children examined because of a suspected immunity defect.

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The paper evaluates the contemporary health status in 115 former child asthmatics, investigated in the past at the allergological department of the First Paediatric Clinic and Faculty Policlinic in Prague-Motol. The data were obtained by processing of a questionnaire and retrospective analysis of the patients' health records. The mean age of the investigated group is 26 years (21-37) incl. 77 men and 38 women. Of these 85, i.e. 74%, still suffer from asthma in adult age, incl. almost half (55 patients) who suffer from the milder form, only one quarter suffers from the more severe form (30 patients) and in one quarter the quiescent stage has been reached. In those where asthma persists there is concurrent eczema (26%), pollinosis (44%), other forms of allergy (43%). Where asthma is in the quiescent stage, eczema is present in 10%, pollinosis in 33% and other allergies in 27% of the investigated subjects. A greater probability of favourable development is in boys as compared with girls and in those without a family-history of allergy and where the disease developed only during late childhood and the patients themselves do not suffer from any other allergosis. A positive family-history of allergy, early onset of the disease and concurrent eczema signalize a poorer prognosis.

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The authors mention different ways in which a give problem can be described within the framework of the theory of sets, logic, mathematical analysis, statistic and cybernetics. As an example of the confrontation of the mentioned aspects they discuss different approaches to the evaluation of time as a variable--temporal logic, Markov chains, theory of catastrophes which play a part in medicine, in particular in prognostic considerations. These different aspects make possible solutions which may differ and their application depends in particular on the purpose for which they are intended.

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The authors discuss basic properties of the process of learning as a form of artificial intelligence. They deal with the application of adaptive and learning systems in the area of identification, regulation, manipulation and recognition. A very important perspective trend is learning in a medium of neuron networks which are actually software or hardware simulation of the functional architecture of the CNS. The authors discuss peculiar features of representation of knowledge, structure and mode of function of this neuron network. Finally the authors give examples of the solution of optimalization and classification tasks within the framework of neurocomputers.

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The authors review problems of expert systems and their application in medicine. They discuss their application, structure and function. Special attention is devoted to questions which concern the users, in particular the selection of the decision making method with regard to the character of the problem and then the structure of the knowledge base. The structure of the medical knowledge base has some specific features which are formulated as the classification of rules of medical knowledge.

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The authors discuss basic problems of analogue - digital transmission focused on practical questions with regard to the application of medical technique in combination with a computer. They discuss the different parts of the digital-measurement chain, different methods of signal transmission and finally also practical applications.

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The authors give an account of different types of commercially supplied programmes which can be used also in the health services. They discuss the properties and types of different software - data base programmes, text processors, graphic and statistical programmes and finally so-called integrated software along with data on possible mutual combinations. At the same time also general conditions for the application of these programmes within the framework of clinical informations systems are discussed incl. their advantages and short-comings.

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A modern tool of interaction with the computer is the programming language Prolog. The authors discuss its position among other languages, emphasize its different character (declarative programming). They outline basic structures of Prolog and its type of function. They also give examples of creating data bases of patients and the possibility to use this language in the creation of expert systems in medicine.

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