METHODICAL GUIDANCE
for students’ self-directed work when preparing and during the practical session
Academic Subject Medical Information Science
Module No 1 Fundamentals of Information Technology in the Health Care
System. Treatment and analysis of medical and biological
data.
Topic Information transfer. Network technologies. Bases of
telemedicine.
Year of study 2
Faculty Foreign Student Training (Medcine/Dentisty)
Number of academic
hours
2
Poltava – 2019
Ministry of public health of Ukraine
Ukrainian Medical Stomatological Academy
“APPROVED”
at the meeting of the Department
of Medical Informatics, Medical Biophysics
and Bases of vital activity safety
«_27_» _august_ 2019
Minutes No. _1_
Acting Head of department,
Е.V.Silkova
__________
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1. Relevance of the topic:
Modern information streams between public institutions, banks, enterprises and organizations are
impossible without modern computer technologies and computer networks. The most potent global
network is Internet. It ensures to users fast access to the majority of information resources of all world.
Telemedicine is using computer technologies in medicine, especially such sing as computer networks.
The most potent global network is Internet. It ensures to users fast access to the majority of information
resources of all world.
2. The specific aims:
To know main computer network types, them features and assignment;
To be able to carry out information search in Internet correctly;
To understand, to remember and to use the knowledge received;
To form the professional experience by reviewing, training and authorizing it.
To study assignment of menu commands of Outlook Express program.
To know correct notation of electron address.
To master the skills of information search using retrieval server.
To know correct choice of keywords.
3. Basic knowledge and skills necessary to study the topic (inter-disciplinary integration).
Previous (providing disciplines) Obtainable skills
Previous (providing disciplines):
Informatics bases
To study concepts: local, territorial, global network.
To study main regulations of search in Google, AltaVista,
Yandex.
The subsequent disciplines:
Social medicine
To know concepts: local, territorial, global network. To
describe them.
To know rules of information search using search server.
To be able to define keywords for certain search.
To know main regulations of search in Google, AltaVista,
Yandex.
To know how to use e-mail (password choice, spam
protection).
To know correct notation of electron address and rules of e-
mail use.
To know how to search information using retrieval server
and correct choice of keywords.
4. The tasks for students’ individual work
4.1. The list of basic term, parameters, characteristics, which student should master while
preparin for the class.
Term Definition
Electronic mail
program
Outlook Express, Microsoft Outlook allow to communicate with other
people and to subscribe for news groups.
Telemedicine Usage of modern computer resources of processing and transmission of the
information between "centre" and "peripherals" of public health services
Store-and-forward
telemedicine
Store-and-forward telemedicine involves acquiring medical data (like
medical images, biosignals etc) and then transmitting this data to a doctor or
medical specialist at a convenient time for assessment offline.
Remote monitoring Self-monitoring or testing, enables medical professionals to monitor a
patient remotely using various technological devices.
Interactive Interactive telemedicine services provide real-time interactions between
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telemedicine patient and provider, to include phone conversations, online communication
and home visits.
Computer networks There are computers, communication lines between them and the programs
providing information interchange between computers on communication
lines.
Local network It consolidates computers located of one work room (for example, school
class), one organization or one building.
Intranet Intranet is a network within the frames of the organization, using
technologies and protocols of the Internet, but accessible only for the certain
users, such as employees of the organization. Intranets also name private
networks.
Territorial network Territorial network consolidates computers and controlled systems of one
organization or group of organizations, which supply, such as government
telecommunication networks, regional medical telecommunication networks.
Internet Internet – the world information computer network that join very large
quantity (thousands) of computer networks, cooperating by uniform rules.
The Internet is not commercial organization, belongs to nobody. Access in the
Internet have tens millions users worldwide.
Backbon Backbon ("ridge") of the network, i.e. the system of the computer centres
located in different parts the USA and other states.
Server The server is a computer on which programs providing access to network
resources work.
Provider Services of the Internet are given by organizations-suppliers (providers).
Firewall Fireproof wall, firewall is the combination of the program and hardware
means forming system of protection, as a rule, from non-authorized access
from an external global network in an internal network (intranet).
4.2 Theoretical questions for the class (to the topic):
1. Network concept: assignment, realization, types.
2. Method of information transfer in global network. Modem functions.
3. E-mail. Address of e-mail.
4. Internet history. Principles of Internet work.
5. Hypertext features and assignment.
6. Services on the Internet
7. Teleconferences: assignment, principles of work.
8. InterNet medical reasources. Rules of information search.
4.3 Practical tasks pertaining to the topic and to be completed during the class:
Test
1. WHAT IS PROTOCOL?
a) the special set of rules that end points in a telecommunication connection use when they
communicate
b) logical communication channels for transferring data
c) physical communication channels sued for transferring data
d) all above
e) none of above
2. WHICH TYPE OF NETWORK IS NETWORK OF EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS?
a) regional
b) corporate
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c) global
d) federal
e) local
3. WHAT DOES THE DNS-SERVER?
a) converting domain names into IP-addresses;
b) search for information on the Internet;
c) store information on the Internet;
d) preserve the IP-addresses of companies and organizations;
e) validation of domain names in the queries.
4. WHAT SERVICE ENABLES YOU TO SEND ONE MESSAGE TO A LARGE GROUP OF
USERS?
a) cloud technology
b) teleconference
c) web navigation
d) old phone
e) IP-Telephony
5. HOW MANY BITS HAVE 2 BYTES?
a) 4
b) 8
c) 16
d) 32
e) 2
Practical work:
Formatting text in HTML documents
I. Prepare a form for the HTML of your resume.
For this purpose, you should:
1) execute the command Пуск Программы Стандартные Блокнот Файл
Сохранить как ...;
2) in the Save document window, open the folder Рабочий стол. In the Name field, enter –
Surname.html, click the button Сохранить.
If everything you have done correctly, then on your desktop will appear the browser's icon,
otherwise, a notepad icon. If there is a notepad icon then you should delete the created file and repeat
everything again.
II. Enter the standard tags in the created document:
<HTML>
<HEAD>
</ HEAD>
<BODY>
</ BODY>
</ HTML>
III. Inside the container <BODY> type your resume according to this plan, in the
total complexity of 4 to 5 lines, instead of points and explanations in the brackets
insert your data):
I, ... (name), was born ... (date and year of birth) in the city ... (the city where you were born).
In ... year I graduated from ... school (lyceum, gymnasium) with in-depth study ..., middle point
of the certificate ... In ... year I entered the faculty ... UMSA. In my spare time I admire ... (list at least
5
three hobbies in addition to studying). My friends in the group: ... (list at least three surnames from the
group).
Run the command Файл Сохранить.
IV. See how the typed text looks like. To do this, open the created file (two times
click).
V. Do the first code correction. To do this, follow:
1) insert into the <HEAD> ... </ HEAD> container: <TITLE> Summary Name </ TITLE>
Сохранить. See how the <TITLE> tag affected.
VI. Do the second code correction. To do this, follow:
1) In the <BODY> tag insert the attributes TEXT and BGCOLOR, select the color values
yourself.
<body bgcolor="?"> - Sets the color of the document background using the color value in the form RRGGBB - for example: FF0000 is red.
<body text="?"> - Sets the color of the document text using the color meaning in the RRGGBB example:
000000 is black.
2) do Файл Сохранить.
See how the look of the information in the Explorer window changed. If any attribute “did not
work”, it means that there are errors in the spelling of English words or spaces between attributes. You
should find errors and repeat the code correction cycle.
VII. Run the third code correction. To do this, follow:
1) after the section “Name, where and when you was born”, put the tag of the paragraph <P>;
2) after the section “what school has graduated, the middle point of the certificate” – the line
breaks tag <BR>;
3) before the section “seizure besides training” insert in the code the horizontal line of the line
<HR>.
Look through Explorer, what is the difference between the <P> and <BR> tags, how the <HR> tag
works with the default attribute values.
VIII. Change the font type in different parts of the resume.
With <H1> container select your surname, the container <I> - where you were born, container
<H6> - school information, container <FONT> with attributes SIZE = 7 COLOR = RED - information
about the faculty, Container <FONT> with attributes SIZE = 1 COLOR = GREEN - information about
friends, container <B> select a hobby.
IX. Make a part of the text as a list.
To do this, the <OL> container should select the capture block; break it into items with the tags
<LI>. Similarly to the container <UL> and the tags <LI> draw up a list of your friends in the form of a
marked list.
<OL>
<LI> element’s list 1 </LI>
<LI> element’s list 2</LI>
<LI> element’s list 3</LI>
</OL>
Content of the topic:
The concept of a medical image
Information – is collection of data about the world around us and about the phenomena that occur in
it. Information is that which informs. In other words, it is the answer to a question of some kind. It has
such properties as: accuracy, timelines relevance and others (Fig. 2.1).
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Accuracy
Timelines
Relevance
Reliability
Economy
Completeness
Simplicity
Verifiability
Informa
tion
Fig 2.1 Properties of information
We perceive information through the senses:
Hearing
Sight
Smell
Touch
Taste
INFORMATION ENTROPY
Information entropy is a concept from information theory. It tells how much information there is
in an event. In general, the more uncertain or random the event is, the more information it will contain.
The concept of information entropy was created by mathematician Claude Shannon.
It has applications in many areas, including lossless data compression, statistical inference,
cryptography, and sometimes in other disciplines as biology, physics or machine learning.
The information gain is a measure of the probability with which a certain result is expected to
happen. Now consider the example of a coin toss. Assuming the probability of heads is the same as the
probability of tails, then the entropy of the coin toss is as high as it could be. This is because there is no
way to predict the outcome of the coin toss ahead of time: if we have to choose, the best we can do is
predict that the coin will come up heads, and our prediction will be correct with probability 1/2. Such a
coin toss has one shannon of entropy since there are two possible outcomes that occur with equal
probability, and learning the actual outcome contains one shannon of information. Contrarily, a coin
toss with a coin that has two heads and no tails has zero entropy since the coin will always come up
heads, and the outcome can be predicted perfectly. Analogously, one binary bit with equiprobable
values has a Shannon entropy of 12log 2 shannon. Similarly, one trit with equiprobable values
contains 3log 2 (about 1.58496) shannons of information because it can have one of three values.
English text, treated as a string of characters, has fairly low entropy, i.e., is fairly predictable. Even
if we do not know exactly what is going to come next, we can be fairly certain that, for example, 'e' will
be far more common than 'z', that the combination 'qu' will be much more common than any other
combination with a 'q' in it, and that the combination 'th' will be more common than 'z', 'q', or 'qu'. After
the first few letters one can often guess the rest of the word. English text has between 0.6 and 1.3
shannons of entropy for each character of message.
If a compression scheme is lossless – that is, you can always recover the entire original message by
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decompressing – then a compressed message has the same quantity of information as the original, but
communicated in fewer characters. That is, it has more information, or a higher entropy, per character.
This means a compressed message has less redundancy.
If the message does not carry useful information, it is called noise. Information can be converted
into sound and vice versa, the noise can be converted to information.
Informational processes include: search, storage, processing, transmitting and receiving data.
INFORMATION UNITS
People were always looking for ways to quickly exchange messages. Many years ago for this aim
they sent messengers, used pigeons.
The famous German scientist Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz proposed in the XVII century, unique and
simple system of numbers’ representation. “Calculations using twos” and it is for basic science and
generates new discoveries in the construction to simple numbers, which are 0 and 1. Today, this way of
presenting information through language contains two symbols 0 and 1, widely used in technical
devices.
These two symbols 0 and 1 are called bits. Bit – is the smallest unit of measurement information
and indicated binary number. Also the bit is a basic unit of information in computing and digital
communications. A bit can have only one of two values, and may therefore be physically implemented
with a two-state device. These values are most commonly represented as either a 0 or 1. Other units of
information, you can see on the Fig. 2.2.
The term bit is a portmanteau of binary digit. In information theory, the bit is equivalent to the unit
Shannon, named after Claude Shannon.
Roughly speaking, Shannon's source coding theorem says that a lossless compression scheme
cannot compress messages, on average, to have more than one bit of information per bit of message, but
that any value less than one bit of information per bit of message can be attained by employing a
suitable coding scheme. The entropy of a message per bit multiplied by the length of that message is a
measure of how much total information the message contains.
Example: information in one “fair” coin flip: log2 (2/1) = 1 bit, and in two fair coin flips is log2 (4/1)
= 2 bits. The word “Informatics” contains 11 symbols, 11 symbols = 11 bytes (11×8=88 bits).
Units of information Size examples
1 byte = 8 bits
1 Кbyte = 1024 byte = 210
1 Мbyte = 1024 Кbyte = 220
1 Gbyte = 1024 Мbyte = 230
1 Тbyte = 1024 Gbyte=240
1 bit – answer to a yes/no question
1 byte – a number from 0 to 255
90 bytes: enough to store a typical line of text from a
book
512 bytes = ½ KB: the typical sector of a hard disk
1024 bytes = 1 KB: the classical block size in UNIX file
systems
2048 bytes = 2 KB: a CD-ROM sector
4096 bytes = 4 KB: a memory page in x86 (since Intel
80386)
4 KB: about one page of text from a novel.
Fig 2.2 Units of information
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SUBMITTING AND TRANSFER THE INFORMATION
Information can be transmitted by means of communications. Messages are oral and written. Also,
messages can be in the form of drawings, gestures, and special characters. Examples of messages:
thermometer's dates, text prescription, oral narrative, student response, video of lecturer, and so on.
Oral messages shall be submitted using sounds and writing messages uses text, pictures, images,
charts.
There are six ways of submitting messages:
1. Text: it can be presented in the form of letters, telegrams, textbook chapter, scrolling text on a
news channel, SMS messages.
2. Graphic: photos, drawings, maps, charts, graphs in magazines.
3. Sound: the roar of the machine, whistling kettle, purring cat, dog barking – all this audio
message.
4. Video: is advertising on television, messages on screens, etc.
5. The signals and gestures: gestures regulator allow the pilot correctly and safely to land the plane.
6. Combined: it follows the notice, which uses several ways. For example, advertising on television
we see and read the comments of it.
In telecommunications, information transfer is the process of moving messages containing user
information from a source to a sink via a Communication channel. In this sense, information transfer is
equivalent to data transmission which highlights more practical, technical aspects.
Communication can best be summarized as the transmission of a message from a sender to a
receiver in an understandable manner. The communication process begins with the sender and ends with
the receiver (Fig 2.3).
The sender is an individual, group, or organization who initiates the communication. This source is
initially responsible for the success of the message.
The first step the sender is faced with involves the encoding process. In order to convey meaning,
the sender must begin encoding, which means translating information into a message in the form of
symbols that represent ideas or concepts. This process translates the ideas or concepts into the coded
message that will be communicated. The symbols can take on numerous forms such as, languages,
words, or gestures. These symbols are used to encode ideas into messages that others can understand.
To begin transmitting the message, the sender uses some kind of channel (also called a medium).
The channel is the means used to convey the message. Most channels are either oral or written, but
currently visual channels are becoming more common as technology expands. Common channels
include the telephone and a variety of written forms such as memos, letters, and reports. The
effectiveness of the various channels fluctuates depending on the characteristics of the communication.
If a sender relays a message through an inappropriate channel, its message may not reach the right
receivers. That is why senders need to keep in mind that selecting the appropriate channel will greatly
assist in the effectiveness of the receiver's understanding.
After the appropriate channel or channels are selected, the message enters the decoding stage of the
communication process. Decoding is conducted by the receiver. Once the message is received and
examined, the stimulus is sent to the brain for interpreting, in order to assign some type of meaning to it.
It is this processing stage that constitutes decoding.
The receiver (recipient) is the individual or individuals to whom the message is directed.
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Fig 2.3 Message-transmission scheme
Electronic mail, or email, is a method of exchanging digital messages between people using digital
devices such as computers, mobile phones and other electronics. Email first entered substantial use in
the 1960s and by the mid-1970s had taken the form now recognized as email. Email operates across
computer networks, which today is primarily the Internet. Some early email systems required the author
and the recipient to both be online at the same time, in common with instant messaging. Today's email
systems are based on a store-and-forward model. Email servers accept, forward, deliver, and store
messages. Neither the users nor their computers are required to be online simultaneously; they need to
connect only briefly, typically to a mail server or a webmail interface, for as long as it takes to send or
receive messages.
E-mail address breakdown ([email protected])
The first portion all e-mail addresses, the part before the @ symbol, contains the alias, user,
group, or department of a company. In our above example support is the Technical Support department
at Computer Hope.
Next, the @ (at sign) is used as a divider in the e-mail address; it is required for all SMTP e-
mail addresses since the first message was sent by Ray Tomlinson.
Finally, computerhope.com is the domain name to which the user belongs.
How to send and receive e-mail
E-mail Program
To send and receive e-mail messages, you can use an e-mail program, also known as an e-mail
client, such as Microsoft Outlook Express or Mozilla Thunderbird. When using an e-mail client, you
must have a server that stores and delivers your messages, which is provided by your ISP or in some
cases, another company. An e-mail client needs to connect to a server to download new e-mail, whereas
email stored online (see next section) updates automatically when you visit the site.
E-mail Online
An alternative way of sending and receiving e-mail (and the more popular solution for most people)
is an online e-mail service or webmail. Examples include Hotmail (now Outlook.com), Gmail, and
Yahoo Mail. Many of the online e-mail services, including the ones we just mentioned, are free or have
a free account option.
Writing an e-mail
When writing an e-mail message, it should look something like the Fig. 2.3. As you can see, several
s
Recipient
m n
Noise source
Information
output
device
Information
input device
Sender
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fields are required when sending an e-mail:
The “To field” is where you type the e-mail address of the person who is the recipient of your
message.
The “From field” should contain
your e-mail address.
If you are replying to a message,
the To and From fields are
automatically filled out; if it's a new
message, you'll need to enter them
manually.
The “CC” or “Carbon Copy” field
allows you to send a copy of the
message to another e-mail address, but
is not mandatory.
The “Subject Line”, although not
required, should consist of a few words
describing the e-mail's contents.
Finally, the Message Body is the
location you type your main message. It
often contains your signature at the
bottom; similar to a hand-written letter.
NETWORK
A computer network or data network is a telecommunications network which allows nodes to
share resources. In computer networks, networked computing devices exchange data with each other
using a data link. The connections between nodes are established using either cable media or wireless
media.
Network computer devices that originate, route and terminate the data are called network nodes.
Nodes can include hosts such as personal computers, phones, servers as well as networking hardware.
Two such devices can be said to be networked together when one device is able to exchange information
with the other device, whether or not they have a direct connection to each other.
Computer networks differ in the transmission medium used to carry their signals, communications
protocols to organize network traffic, the network's size, topology and organizational intent.
History: In 1965, Thomas Marill and Lawrence G. Roberts created the first wide area network
(WAN). This was an immediate precursor to the ARPANET, of which Roberts became program
manager.
In 1969, the University of California at Los Angeles, the Stanford Research Institute, the University
of California at Santa Barbara, and the University of Utah became connected as the beginning of the
ARPANET network using 50 kbit/s circuits.
In 1972, commercial services using X.25 were deployed, and later used as an underlying
infrastructure for expanding TCP/IP networks.
Computer networks support an enormous number of applications and services such as access to the
World Wide Web, digital video, digital audio, shared use of application and storage servers, printers,
and fax machines, and use of email and instant messaging applications as well as many others. In most
Fig. 2.3 Basics of an e-mail massage
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cases, application-specific communications protocols are layered (i.e. carried as payload) over other
more general communications protocols.
Computer networks can be local, distributed (other name – territorial) and global. Local network
(LAN) consolidates computers located of one work room (for example, computer class), one
organization or one building.
Territorial network consolidates computers and controlled systems of one organization or group
of organizations, which supply, such as government telecommunication networks, regional medical
telecommunication networks.
Internet (WAN) – the world information computer network that join very large quantity
(thousands) of computer networks, cooperating by uniform rules. The Internet is not commercial
organization, belongs to nobody. Access in the Internet have tens millions users worldwide.
Intranet is a network within the frames of the organization, using technologies and protocols of the
Internet, but accessible only for the certain users, such as employees of the organization. Intranets also
name private networks.
Communication lines can be cables, phone lines (the medium the electrical signal is), fiber optic
lines (the information is transferred with the help of light signals), a radio communication, including
satellite. Conversion of the information from a computer for transmission on a communication circuit
(and on the contrary) is made with the help of special devices - network cards, network adapters,
modems, etc. Communication circuits can be allocated, intended only for operation of the network, or
switched (the phone lines providing temporary link through automatic telephone exchange). The transfer
rate of the information on different lines differs: below all on phone lines; but they are the most
accessible and cheap. Connection of a computer to a telephone system is carried out through the
modem.
NETWORK TOPOLOGY
Network topology is the layout or organizational hierarchy of interconnected nodes of a computer
network. Different network topologies can affect throughput, but reliability is often more critical. With
many technologies, such as bus networks, a single failure can cause the network to fail entirely. In
general the more interconnections there are, the more robust the network is; but the more expensive it is
to install.
Common layouts are ring, star and bus. But sometimes you can see other classification (Fig.2.4).
Fig 2.4 Layout geometry of local network (Topology)
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A bus network: all nodes are connected to a common medium along this medium.
A star network: all nodes are connected to a special central node. This is the typical layout found
in a Wireless LAN, where each wireless client connects to the central Wireless access point.
A ring network: each node is connected to its left and right neighbor node, such that all nodes are
connected and that each node can reach each other node by traversing nodes left- or rightwards.
A mesh network: each node is connected to an arbitrary number of neighbors in such a way that
there is at least one traversal from any node to any other.
A fully connected network: each node is connected to every other node in the network.
A tree network: nodes are arranged hierarchically.
Note that the physical layout of the nodes in a network may not necessarily reflect the network
topology. As an example, with FDDI, the network topology is a ring (actually two counter-rotating
rings), but the physical topology is often a star, because all neighboring connections can be routed via a
central physical location.
NETWORK DEVICES
Modems (MOdulator-DEModulator) are used to connect network nodes via wire not originally
designed for digital network traffic, or for wireless. To do this one or more carrier signals are modulated
by the digital signal to produce an analog signal that can be tailored to give the required properties for
transmission. Modems are commonly used for telephone lines, using a Digital Subscriber Line
technology. A repeater is an electronic device that receives a network signal, cleans it of unnecessary
noise and regenerates it. The signal is retransmitted at a higher power level, or to the other side of an
obstruction, so that the signal can cover longer distances without degradation. In most twisted pair
Ethernet configurations, repeaters are required for cable that runs longer than 100 meters. With fiber
optics, repeaters can be tens or even hundreds of kilometers apart.
A repeater with multiple ports is known as a hub. Repeaters work on the physical layer of the OSI
model. Repeaters require a small amount of time to regenerate the signal. This can cause a propagation
delay that affects network performance. As a result, many network architectures limit the number of
repeaters that can be used in a row, e.g., the Ethernet 5-4-3 rule.
Hubs have been mostly obsoleted by modern switches; but repeaters are used for long distance
links, notably undersea cabling.
A network switch is a device that forwards and filters OSI layer 2 datagrams (frames) between
ports based on the destination MAC address in each frame. A switch is distinct from a hub in that it only
forwards the frames to the physical ports involved in the communication rather than all ports connected.
It can be thought of as a multi-port bridge. It learns to associate physical ports to MAC addresses by
examining the source addresses of received frames. If an unknown destination is targeted, the switch
broadcasts to all ports but the source. Switches normally have numerous ports, facilitating a star
topology for devices, and cascading additional switches.
A router is an internetworking device that forwards packets between networks by processing the
routing information included in the packet or datagram (Internet protocol information from layer 3). The
routing information is often processed in conjunction with the routing table (or forwarding table). A
router uses its routing table to determine where to forward packets. A destination in a routing table can
include a “null” interface, also known as the “black hole” interface because data can go into it, however,
no further processing is done for said data, i.e. the packets are dropped.
A firewall is a network device for controlling network security and access rules. Firewalls are
typically configured to reject access requests from unrecognized sources while allowing actions from
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recognized ones. The vital role firewalls play in network security grows in parallel with the constant
increase in cyber-attacks.
INTERNET
Services of the Internet are given by organizations-suppliers (providers); users are connected
through their computers (servers). To the network can be connected both a separate computer, and a
local network. Though only one computer of a local network connects to the Internet by the
communication line, all other computers of the given local network also are connected to the
Internet through it.
Providers have many lines for connection of users and high-speed lines for link with other part of
the Internet. The maximum transfer rate of the information is provided with the suppliers on-line
directly to “backbone” of the network.
The computers connected to the Internet are named as sites or nodes of the Internet. Nodes can
differ on services which they give: access to the Internet (sites of suppliers) or allocation of the
information (for example, sites of corporations – the information on the goods and services).
There are also the search sites, providing to user’s possibility of information retrieval in the
Internet. There are the national search sites working in a narrow segment of the Internet with one–two
users’ languages, and powerful systems, such, as Google, providing search and in an English-speaking
segment, and in national segments.
Transmission of the information in the Internet
Transmission of the information in the Internet is carried out by rigidly stipulated rules. Two main
used concepts – the address and the protocol. Any computer connected to the Internet, has the unique
address, without dependence on, whether it is connected permanently, as the server, or temporarily.
This address is used for the information transfer on a computer and in process of information
interchange during each session in the network. Special organizations are engaged in output and check
of addresses, guaranteeing uniqueness of each name. Addresses are represented by the name constructed
by defined rules, and the digital code. Names are used by users in an operating time with the Internet;
digital codes are used by computers at information transfer. Conversion of character names into digital
names is made automatically for what the computer of the user accesses to DNS servers which store
DNS (Domain Name System – the domain system of names) databases.
Names are formed on the domain system. Thus names are made of parts of a different level, is
sequential clarification layout of a computer. Each level is named as the domain; domains are separated
from each other by points, for example: www.netspace.org (the organization giving the information on
educational resources) or ezumsa.bsmu.edu.ua. The domain of a top level allocates in a name more to
the right, a lower layer – more to the left.
Domain is the group of the computers forming a part of a network and using the common catalogue
database. The domain is administered as uniform object with the certain rules and procedures. Each
domain has a unique name.
Domains of a highest level correspond to the agreement on which two-letter codes designate the
countries, trigram – a sphere of activity (are usually specified in the USA, the name of the country thus
is absent). For example, ua - the denotation of Ukraine, ru or su - Russia, uk - the Great Britain, fr -
France, de - Germany. The domain com - commercial organizations, net - network organizations, edu -
educational and scientific, gov - government agencies, mil - militaries, org - other organizations.
Similar trigram denotations in domains of the second level (in front of the domain of the country) have
the same sense, but inside the indicated country.
URL address is the address unequivocally determining a resource in the Internet. URL addresses
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for websites begin with a prefix http://. URL address can be more detailed, for example, specify a name
of the hypertext page usually determined on expansion .html or .htm. URL address usually begins with
a name of the protocol; then the name of the organization owning in node follows (a suffix follows
designates type of the organization).
The extreme left domain can designate the type of the information stored to the indicated address.
So, www.evms.edu address is a page of East-Virgine medical school in the World Wide Web.
The majority of large firms have the pages in the World Wide Web, which have the addresses
including a name of the company more often, before which there is a name www (the type of the
information - WEB-page), and after a name of the company - a name com.
MAIN INTERNET PROTOCOLS
TCP/IP is a two-layer program. The higher layer, Transmission Control Protocol, manages the
assembling of a message or file into smaller packets that are transmitted over the Internet and received
by a TCP layer that reassembles the packets into the original message. The lower layer, Internet
Protocol, handles the address part of each packet so that it gets to the right destination. Each gateway
computer on the network checks this address to see where to forward the message. Even though some
packets from the same message are routed differently than others, they'll be reassembled at the
destination.
TCP/IP uses the client/server model of communication in which a computer user (a client) requests
and is provided a service (such as sending a Web page) by another computer (a server) in the network.
TCP/IP communication is primarily point-to-point, meaning each communication is from one point (or
host computer) in the network to another point or host computer.
Many Internet users are familiar with the even higher layer application protocols that use TCP/IP to
get to the Internet. These include the World Wide Web's Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), the File
Transfer Protocol (FTP), Telnet (Telnet) which lets you logon to remote computers, and the Simple
Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). These and other protocols are often packaged together with TCP/IP as
a “suite”.
Personal computer users with an analog phone modem connection to the Internet usually get to the
Internet through the Serial Line Internet Protocol (SLIP) or the Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP). These
protocols encapsulate the IP packets so that they can be sent over the dial-up phone connection to an
access provider's modem.
Protocols related to TCP/IP include the User Datagram Protocol (UDP), which is used instead of
TCP for special purposes. Other protocols are used by network host computers for exchanging router
information. These include the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP), the Interior Gateway
Protocol (IGP), the Exterior Gateway Protocol (EGP), and the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP).
IP ADDRESS
An IP address is a fascinating product of modern computer technology designed to allow one
computer (or other digital device) to communicate with another via the Internet. IP addresses allow the
location of literally billions of digital devices that are connected to the Internet to be pinpointed and
differentiated from other devices. In the same sense that someone needs your mailing address to send
you a letter, a remote computer needs your IP address to communicate with your computer.
“IP” stands for Internet Protocol, so an IP address is an Internet Protocol address. What does that
mean? An Internet Protocol is a set of rules that govern Internet activity and facilitate completion of a
variety of actions on the World Wide Web. Therefore an Internet Protocol address is part of the
systematically laid out interconnected grid that governs online communication by identifying both
initiating devices and various Internet destinations, thereby making two-way communication possible.
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An IPv4 address consists of four numbers, each of which contains one to three digits, with a single
dot (.) separating each number or set of digits. Each of the four numbers can range from 0 to 255. Here's
an example of what an IP address might look like: 78.125.0.209. This innocuous-looking group of four
numbers is the key that empowers to send and retrieve data over Internet connections, ensuring that
messages, as well as requests for data and the data we've requested, will reach their correct Internet
destinations. Without this numeric protocol, sending and receiving data over the World Wide Web
would be impossible.
An IPv6 address consists of eight groups of four hexadecimal digits. If a group consists of four
zeros, the notation can be shortened using a colon to replace the zeros.
Dynamic or Static
IP addresses can be either static or dynamic. Static IP addresses never change. They serve as a
permanent Internet address and provide a simple and reliable way for remote computers to contact you.
Static IP addresses reveal such information as the continent, country, region, and city in which a
computer is located; the ISP (Internet Service Provider) that services that particular computer; and such
technical information as the precise latitude and longitude of the country, as well as the locale, of the
computer.
Dynamic IP addresses are temporary and are assigned (via DHCP) each time a computer joins a
network. They are, in effect, borrowed from a pool of IP addresses that are shared among various
computers. Since a limited number of static IP addresses are available, many ISPs reserve a portion of
their assigned addresses for sharing among their subscribers in this way. This lowers costs and allows
them to service far more subscribers than they otherwise could.
Static IP addresses are generally preferable for such uses as VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol),
online gaming, or any other purpose where users need to make it easy for other computers to locate and
connect to them. Easy access can also be facilitated when using a dynamic IP address through the use of
a dynamic DNS service, which enables other computers to find you even though you may be using a
temporary, one-time IP address.
Static IP addresses are considered somewhat less secure than dynamic IP addresses, since they are
easier to track for data mining purposes. However, following safe Internet practices can help mitigate
this potential problem and keep your computer secure no matter what type of IP address you use.
INTERNET AND WEB-BASED MEDICAL COMMUNICATION
Despite the tremendous growth of the Internet and the vast amount of information available to
medical practitioners, busy physicians (especially those in clinical practice) have little time to spend
exploring the Internet. In some cases, physicians simply do not know how to access required medical
information in the best and fastest possible way. Many physicians do not know how beneficial the
Internet can be for their medical careers, especially in such areas as patient care, academic work, or
research.
More-informed patients often have a more favorable prognosis, and doctors can help make patients
better informed by supplying reliable Internet sites. Researchers at University of Iowa tested the benefits
of an “Internet prescription”, or a list of Web addresses containing information relevant to patients'
medical conditions. In the study, patients and their families that received such information were more
likely to use the Internet to find health information than patients who were not. One of every 3 parents
receiving Internet prescriptions for their child's health said they used it. Also, 66% of the health-related
Web sites used by parents in the prescription group were sites recommended by the physicians.
In conclusion, the Internet and Web has had important impact in the practice of medicine.
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Physicians need to know the importance of this media and how to use it in a pragmatic and efficient
way. Many physicians believe that they save personal time by using the Internet and that they can use
the Internet for better practice of medicine. Also they can have easy access to clinical guidelines, journal
contents, and reference textbooks and even provide patients with educational materials. Physicians will
be able to obtain information on state-of-the-art conferences and have direct communication with other
physicians and specialists or practice telemedicine, thereby expanding the depth and extent of medical
knowledge and providing better diagnosis and patient care.
International information networks
Computer local information systems are united with the help of the Internet.
Now there are readily available databases POISINDEX, TOXNET, MEDLINE, EUROTXNET, etc.
c the most detailed accompanying information on application. Especially the Internet is useful to
patients who can to address, practically, to all world community behind the help. Statistics shows, that
the majority of patients access on questions of oncology.
EDUCATION
Creation of a wide-area network the Internet has created completely new possibilities in an
education system.
“Virtual” education is the modern form of instruction by correspondence. The pupils, who are not
having possibilities to visit occupation because of remoteness from school or physical inability, are
trained through the Internet, not quitting from a house. After graduation examination they receive valid
certificates.
Since 1983 in the USA reform of an education system began. At university of state Colorado
(400000 students), at the Californian university (500000 students) and at a number of other educational
institutions students communicate with teachers and faculties with the help of communication networks.
Since September, 1, 1999 in Russia the official virtual high school began to work. Its pupils can
receive the certificate about the finished secondary education. In Moscow state university of economy,
statistics and computer science about 40000 students are trained remotely.
In Ukraine one of leaders – is the Kharkov University of Radio Electronics. Teachers communicate
with students on e-mail and in on-line mode. For this purpose, there are electronic textbooks.
The remote form of training – is obtaining of educational services without visiting to higher
educational institution, with the help of modern informational-educational technologies and systems of
telecommunication, such as the e-mail, a television and the Internet. Thus testing also can be remotely.
It allows the modern specialist to study practically all life, without special business trips, holidays,
combining study with base activity. It is possible to study, being practically in any point of globe where
there is a computer and the Internet. Cost of remote training makes 50-60 % from cost of resident
instruction.
The remote form of education demands from the student of the large independent load.
Remote training is used actively in training to computer science and in adjacent areas. In medicine
integrate virtual and remote training is impossible, therefore it is used as addition to main – classical –
the form of training and for post-graduate educations, advanced training of professional skill of doctors.
Other Education resources for self-work:
1) FutureLearn https://www.futurelearn.com
2) edX https://www.edx.org/
3) Coursera https://ru.coursera.org
The Dark Side of Telemedicine – Hacking into Medical Data
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People worry that the string of numbers that identify their credit card accounts, if sent via the Net,
could be intercepted by hackers to finance the purchases of strangers.
In a telemedicine a worse problem is the potential for illegal access and misuse of online medical or
psychiatric data, whether in transit or stored.
People with long-term diseases like diabetes, or even those only genetically predisposed to them,
could lose job opportunities and be rebuffed for insurance if information stolen from data banks were
sold to corporate bidders.
Politicians and celebrities would be particularly susceptible to scandals and blackmail arising from
intercepted data. More distant in time, patients relying upon intravenously delivered medicine, remotely
controlled via the Net, could have their lives threatened by a cyber-attacker who altered their medicinal
flow rate.
Benefits of online medicine (telemedicine)
Telemedicine uses technology to provide an alternative to traditional, in-person physician visits,
and provide medical care at a patient's location, regardless of the location of the medical team.
Computer scientists familiar with the medical field believe that within the next five years,
computers at remote locations will control vital sign monitoring and limited types of medical treatment.
Medical care will travel with patients, whether they are in the home, the office, or on travel, so their
electronic medical records must be accessible from any location.
Sensors attached to patients will transmit signals to computers, either in the home or at a remote
location, for state-of-health analysis. Because these vital-signs sensors will be non-invasive and
comfortable to wear, they will acquire medical information from the patient around the clock instead of
a few times a day. This approach to continuous physiological monitoring and trend analysis will lead to
a preventive health care model where the future health of an individual will be predicted based on
information acquired from these sensors. This differs from the primary care delivery model employed
today, where a patient visits a physician only after suffering discomfort or experiencing a health
emergency.
TELEMEDICINE
Telemedicine – is usage of modern computer resources of processing and transmission of the
information between “center” and “peripherals” of public health services.
The primary goals of a telemedicine - to enable doctors of small cities and settlements to consult for
experts at medical centers of capitals and regional centers, to transfer case histories from one clinic in
another, to carry out nation-wide and international medical computer conferences, courses of
improvement of qualification of doctors “on the job”.
The potential advantages are obvious in dispersed communities, or when patient transportation is a
problem.
Telemedicine is distance consultation among health professionals or between health professionals
and patients by use of telecommunications technology such as real-time audio or visual systems, most
notably video conferencing. The potential advantages are obvious in dispersed communities, where
expertise is thinly spread, and when traveling is difficult or inconvenient for doctor or patient. Uses are
wide and varied and include direct interview and history taking, observation of physical signs, and
distance reporting of imaging procedures. The location of consultation varies from hospital inpatient and
outpatient settings, to broader residential and home settings, and even outer space.
Some hospitals in the United States are using broadband technology to improve patient care and
cope with a national shortage of physicians in certain specialties. For example, in one hospital in
California, patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) are monitored by doctors a mile away in a control
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room called the ICU. With advancing communications protocols, neurologists can view their patients'
radiology images and diagnose their diseases from remote locations. Even computer-assisted
neurosurgery is possible.
Types of telemedicine
Telemedicine can be broken into three main categories: store-and-forward, remote monitoring
and interactive services.
Tasks for self-check:
Task 1:
1. WHICH TYPE OF NETWORK IS NETWORK OF EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS?
a) local
b) regional
c) corporate
d) global
e) federal
2. WHAT PROTOCOL DETERMINES WHICH ROUTE SHOULD BE SENT A SPECIFIC
PACKAGE OF INFORMATION TO?
a) FTP
b) TCP
c) UDP
d) Web
e) IP
3. WHAT IS THE STANDARD LANGUAGE OF WEB PAGES IN THE INTERNET (MOST
WEB PAGES ARE CREATED USING THIS LANGUAGE)?
a) URL
b) DELPHI
c) JAVA
d) HTML
e) FTP
4. WHAT VARIANT DESCRIBES THE RIGHT E-MAIL ADDRESS IN THE INTERNET?
b) nT@@mgpu.nisk.ni
c) 192.168.0.214
d) www.psu.ru
e) bot.mail.ru
5. WHAT IS SPAM?
a) messages infected with a virus
b) threatening image
c) posts advertising
d) messages with attachments
e) special analyzes
Task 2: Conduct an information search on the Internet for the term "computer technologies in
medicine", using the electronic catalog of the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine (http://www.irbis-
nbuv.gov.ua) and the Google search engine (https://www.google.com/) or Yandex (https://yandex.ua).
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Answer the question: Which search system most satisfied you in solving the problem, why? What
problems did you encounter while searching for the necessary information?
Task 3: Using any Internet search engine, find three sites that have a destination: the first one for
medical students, the second one for practitioners, the third one for patients, and the article on the
identified problem proposed teacher. For example, "Stroke, Rehab after Stroke"
References:
Basic.
1. Olenets S.Yu. Medical informatics [Text]:Tutorial guide / Olenets S.Yu.: HSEE of Ukraine
“UMSA”. – Poltava: TOV “ASMI”, 2017. – 160 p.:im.
2. Handbook of Medical Informatics. Editors: J.H. van Bemmel, M.A. Musen. –
http://www.mieur.nl/mihandbook; http://www.mihandbook.stanford.edu
3. Mark A. Musen B. Handbook of Medical Informatics // Електронний ресурс
ftp://46.101.84.92/pdf12/handbook-of-medical-informatics.pdf
4. Edward H., Shortliffe J., Cimino J. Biomedical Informatics, 2014 // Електронний ресурс:
http://www.rhc.ac.ir/Files/Download/pdf/nursingbooks/Biomedical%20Informatics%20Computer%20A
pplications%20in%20Health%20Care%20and%20Biomedicine-2014%20-%20CD.pdf
5. Medical Informatics: Computer Applications in Health Care and Biomedicine, 2011 //
6. Коровіна Л.Д. Медична інформатика : навчальний посібник для студентів вищих медичних
навчальних закладів / Л. Д. Коровіна - Полтава : РВВ УМСА, 2008. 144 с. англ. мовою.
7. Marzeniuk, V.P. Biophysics and medical informatics : Manual for Students of the Higher Medical
Schools of the III-IV Degree of Accreditation / V.P. Marzeniuk, V.D. Didukh, D.V. Vakulenko at al.
Ternopil : Ukrmedknyha, 2004. Vol. 1: 479 с. :
Additional.
1. www.imia.org (Міжнародна Асоціація Медичної Інформатики)
2. www.mihandbook.stanford.edu (Медична інформатика, Стенфордський університет)
3. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov (Національна бібліотека медицини США)
4. www.cochrane.ru (Розділ Кохранівського співтовариства)
5. www.mednavigator.net (Медична пошукова система)
The methodical guidance has been completed by S.Y. Olenets