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E-nephrology

Diagnosis of renal diseases is often delayed owing to the scarcity of trained physicians, lack of facilities, and shortage of funds limits effective management, particularly when it comes to the red zone of renal replacement therapy. The Internetis expected to open up a myriad resource of knowledge and applications for academicians, researchers and clinicians alike in all health care professions across the globe. Also, the Internet has grown rapidly over the years and will inevitably expand even more. Evolving technologies offer modern applications for information management, communications with multimedia and virtual reality. Now, these innovative technologies have opened up newer possibilities for nephrologists. As Internet is serving as a backbone for these modern technologies, it is an utmost necessity to use and refine Internet applications for future nephrologists. Increasingly easy access to Internet has dramatically reduced barriers in sharing of information among basic and clinical nephrologists. Considering the growing scope for nephrologists in the use of Internet, it is necessary to understand Internet as a source of information and backbone of modern application. This review illustrates expanding roles of the Internet for the nephrologists and provides ready to use compilation of useful academic, research, clinical resources and is expected to introduce, stimulate and guide nephrologists into the realm of the world wide web. It also investigates how Internet is supporting in growth and development of the field of nephrology and present and future scopes of Internet as a tool for professionals involved in this area as well as information about biological sciences, and it also gives information about societies in various continents working in field of nephrology and the links useful for clinicians and research scientists.

Inaccessible novel questionnaires in published medical research: hidden methods, hidden costs

Although critical analysis of survey research is limited when reviewers and readers cannot view a study's questionnaire, access to novel questionnaires used in published research has not been systematically examined. The authors identified publications reporting the results of novel questionnaires in three medical journals (JAMA, The New England Journal of Medicine, and The Lancet) in January 2000-May 2003 and searched portable document format (PDF) versions of the studies for the complete questionnaire or a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) providing access to the questionnaire. When the questionnaire was not provided in the publication or a published URL, the authors requested it from the corresponding author in writing up to three times over a 6-week period. Of 93 publications with novel questionnaires, four printed the questionnaire in the article and three provided online access. Corresponding authors failed to provide questionnaires for 37 of 81 (46%) studies. Novel questionnaires used in published research are frequently not available to readers or researchers. Policies that improve access to novel questionnaires will allow better assessment of study results, reduce duplicated efforts, and improve authorship attribution for questionnaire design.