BY MARK CRAIL

  • News

    WEB WATCH

    1999-09-16T00:00:00

    While the Department of Health continues ploughing good money after bad in an attempt to maintain its glorious technological isolation from the grubby world outside, our American cousins forge ahead, placing their faith in the very latest encryption software and the hottest and highest of firewalls.

  • News

    WEB WATCH

    1999-08-12T00:00:00

    Finding what you want on the Internet can be a pain. Now finding pain itself on the Internet has become considerably easier, thanks to Dr Andrew Moore and his colleagues at the pain research unit of Churchill Hospital, Headington, and the people who brought you Bandolier.

  • News

    WEB WATCH

    1999-08-05T00:00:00

    'This site is under construction... literally,' reads the blurb. Work on Dartford and Gravesham's new £100m hospital, the first to be built under the private finance initiative, is now fairly far advanced. New roads have been built, the helipad is complete, and the builders are keen to show off their ...

  • News

    WEB WATCH

    1999-07-29T00:00:00

    Who would have thought the most useful person on the web would turn out to be a butler?

  • News

    WEB WATCH

    1999-07-22T00:00:00

    The case against animal research is a relatively easy one to make. Produce a few cuddly bunnies, talk emotively about evil scientists with electrodes, and there you have it. The case for cutting up small furry animals, on the other hand, is more complex but has other advantages, not least ...

  • News

    WEB WATCH

    1999-07-15T00:00:00

    If you are reading this to pass the time while queueing outside your local Roxy, then the chances are you already know that today sees the UK cinema debut of The Phantom Menace , part one in George Lucas' Star Wars epic, which so creatively began with parts four to ...

  • News

    WEB WATCH

    1999-07-08T00:00:00

    What tune best sums up the primary care group challenge? Eschewing the obvious Money (or even Money, Money Money), maybe Nineteenth Nervous Breakdown would fit the bill. Not for Bexley and Greenwich PCGs, where visitors to an online PCG theme competition have inexplicably plumped for the theme tune from Neighbours ...

  • News

    WEB WATCH

    1999-01-14T00:00:00

    It is a hard life as an expert medical witness. Slaving away for just £124 an hour to prepare your evidence, and going to court for £870 a day - it's barely enough to keep the Woolf from the door.

  • News

    WEB WATCH

    1998-11-12T00:00:00

    Does anti-tobacco propaganda work? Difficult to tell - though according to official statistics, among non-smokers almost half the men and more than a third of the women used to smoke, which may tell us something.

  • News

    WEB WATCH

    1998-11-05T00:00:00

    In Whitehall, agriculture minister Jack Cunningham sits with his colleagues, peering over his new ministerial red boxes. Unlike the previous government, this one 'will publish any report on public health immediately it comes to us', he promises, the shiny novelty of high office not yet having worn off.

  • News

    WEB WATCH

    1998-10-22T00:00:00

    The House of Commons returned this week to complete the unfinished business of the old parliamentary session before the Queen's speech launches us into a fresh round of political thrills and spills. So what better time to look back on the obsessions of the past 12 months?

  • News

    WEB WATCH

    1998-10-01T00:00:00

    'People must beware of miracle cures and medical offers on the Internet,' warns John Bridgeman, director general of the Office of Fair Trading. 'If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.' Sound advice.

  • News

    WEB WATCH

    1998-09-24T00:00:00

    'As a result of the German invasion, I left my home in Vienna and came to England, where I hope to end my life in freedom,' declared Sigmund Freud in a BBC radio broadcast in 1938. Until his death the following year, he lived at 20 Maresfield Gardens in the ...

  • News

    WEB WATCH

    1998-09-17T00:00:00

    Lightning may strike at any time. Capable of travelling almost horizontally for up to 10 kilometres from the storm cloud in which it originated, a thunderbolt may appear to come out of a clear blue sky, long before the storm rolls into view. The faster and

  • News

    WEB WATCH

    1998-09-10T00:00:00

    The Department of Health is about to transform its web site from something resembling a 'typical 1950s civil service design' with a 'mystifying' database into a modern and comprehensive source of information for the public and professionals alike. How do I know? It says so.

  • News

    WEB WATCH

    1998-09-03T00:00:00

    I am going outside now. I may be some time. Autumn is approaching, and our thoughts turn naturally to howling winds, snow drifts and temperatures of 40 degrees below freezing. But if you think it's going to be bad here, spare a thought for the medics of the British Antarctic ...

  • News

    WEB WATCH

    1998-08-20T00:00:00

    If your access to the wonderful world of communications technology comes from within the NHS, then you are most likely already aware of NHSweb. If not, http://nww.inform.nhsweb. nhs.uk will produce only an annoying insistence on the part of your web browser that the site has no DNS entry.

  • News

    WEB WATCH

    1998-08-13T00:00:00

    The truth is out there. But trawling through what passes for healthcare advice on the Internet, you wouldn't know it. In a week that sees the advent of the International Trepanation Advocacy Group online, you may well feel that you need more of it like you need a hole in ...

  • News

    WEB WATCH

    1998-08-13T00:00:00

    The truth is out there. But trawling through what passes for healthcare advice on the Internet, you wouldn't know it. In a week that sees the advent of the International Trepanation Advocacy Group online, you may well feel that you need more of it like you need a hole in ...

  • News

    WEB WATCH

    1998-08-06T00:00:00

    Somewhere out there in cyberspace, someone shares your interest in the early history of health economics, the research possibilities inherent in The New NHS, or whatever it is that turns you on. Indeed, the ether is probably buzzing already with fellow enthusiasts sharing ideas. But how to find them?

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