Web-based radiology: a future to be created.

The impact of Internet on Medicine and Surgery is certainly remarkable, however the influence it had on Diagnostic Imaging was even stronger. The standardization of digital images acquired by the different medical imaging equipment has further facilitated the diffusion, transmission and communication in radiology within hospitals as well as on WEB. Radiology departments are bound to become "filmless" and with the present "tablet PC" radiological images will be directly transferred to the patient's bed in the relative electronic patient report. For radiology, interactive education could be envisaged with a tutor who guides the student(s) through the network. The Internet is an inexhaustible source of radiologic educational and information material with a number of sites of clinical cases, tutorial and teaching files, journals and magisterial lectures on-line. In a near future, the Internet could be applied in the simulation of clinicoradiologic cases or in applications of artificial intelligence with expert systems to support the solution of most complex cases.