Cabling Argentina for Research
1997
1997
Publicado en el libro: Internet, Telematics and Health. Marcelo Sosa- Iudicissa et al. Editorial IOS Press. Amsterdam
1997
CABLING ARGENTINA FOR RESEARCH AND BEYOND
Jares D., Rodas E.
Those of us using the various services offered by communication between computers may feel amazement and incredulity when we come to think that a few years back this was but a science fiction dream, belonging to creative minds not to serious scientists.
As we reached the world of Medical Informatics in the 80’s with the hope of achieving some sort of medical record on electronic media, of making the clinical histories of different specialties compatible, putting patients and other services offered by the computer in priority order, we became aware of how powerful this weapon available to us was. Due to the technological slowness in our communication systems, to the continuous devaluation of our currency and to the lack of stability in our economy, advances were unthinkable in the short term. In the last five years these conditions have improved and permitted the progress we see today. Although we have not yet found a way of reducing the tendency to increasing costs. Despite the difficulties, there were always pioneers who gave this history a starting point.
At the beginning of the 80’s, very high frequence equipment (VHF) in mobile communications became very popular among radio amateurs in Argentina and most of the radio clubs used connected re-transmission stations for communication between them. A group of radio amateurs who were also biochemists, chemists, doctors and engineers was formed. They thought that another more accessible system should be used for communication in the biomedical area as radio required a certain mystic talent.
At this same time, the first personal computers appeared in the market, costing a few hundred US dollars. While some of us carried out Surveillance Protocols in perinatology following complex clinical protocols and some other statistics, we had to face the inconvenience that other hospitals at different venues had their radios set to different frequencies and could not communicate. Of course the end of this story could not be imagined. This small group of radio amateurs developed the basic programs that permitted these inexpensive computers to communicate with each other. They developed telegram systems, radio teletype systems, and used satellite communication systems which were then available for radio amateurs in Argentina. These were the basic elements for creating a healthcare network. This, however required radio transmission and reception, a system that was not within financial or technological reach of physicians.
The increasing use of PC’s brought about the “Bulletin Board Systems” or BBS’s. In other words what was happening was that a computer was made available to users through a telephone line, responding at any time to other computer’s requests. Some physician experimented with these BBS’s (Charlie BBS, had a medical forum, incredibly innovative for the time) but the diffusion of health topics remained only within a few initiated, and the most frequently discussed topics were related to technology.
The Children’s Hospital Ricardo Gutiérrez and the Department of Clinical Analysis of the Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) began to think of changing this situation by using telephone lines instead of radios. Small telephone modems were thus developed for small ZX-81 Sinclair computers and more pioneers were optimistic and accessed the Hospital Group that was available in a local communications company. There they could use a Microvax dedicated to receiving messages. PC’s then appeared in the market at a cost of several thousand US dollars, they were affordable by only some institutions. With this equipment and a 300 baud modern they could communicate with any similar computer worldwide. The Hospital Group reached the 20 physicians and biochemists that were forward thinking, and considered international communications worth the effort. They contacted the Institute of Astrophysics and the Astronomic Observatory of the city of La Plata and were offered a connection to the Accounting Department of the Faculty of Exact Sciences. The first diskette and software with the name of GUTI (Gutiérrez Children’s Hospital) was originated there for accessing the machine at the faculty of Exact Sciences. The head at the PAHO Accounting Center in Argentina, successfully put an optimistic proposal to his authorities who found the funds for installing a distribution node at OPS/OMS in Argentina, at the installations at the Faculty of Exact Sciences and at the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
When the Ricardo Gutiérrez Children’s Hospital received a 386 computer as a donation, with a 70 Mb, 2 Mb RAM hard disk and two 2400 bps modems it became one of the distribution nodes of the network. A similar development happened in the Department of Analysis of the Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry at the University of Buenos Aires. This gave rise to a healthcare net with the power and the effectiveness of the PAHO, the Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, and of the Gutiérrez Children’s Hospital and the number of users in the medical field increased fivefold.
From there on everything unfolded quickly and the map of the healthcare net became more complex. Today, there are numerous distribution nodes in addition to the one mentioned before. The Secretariat of Science and Technology (SECYT), National Administration of Medicines (ANMAT), PCCP (private node), and others are distributed throughout the country. Their main exit is through the channels at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, or other alternative ones.
Towards the end of 1983, with the return of Democracy to Argentina, people go back to universities, which had previously very little funds. In 1984, the Computer Science Department was created in the Faculty of Exact Sciences. It is the oldest in Latin America as it got started in 1960 as the Department of Studies of Computer Sciences and it was considered that it should be dependent on the faculty of Mathematics. The development of computer sciences had been restricted by that point of view, and it was changed at the beginning of 1984.
Meanwhile, a project was started to computerize the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it was motivated by the visit of a foreign scientist hoping to establish communication with his own country. The possibility of this happening caused great amazement.
The project, the National Academic Network, was developed in the Faculty of Exact Sciences, in the Department of Computer Science with the objective of providing electronic mail and other services in Argentina. They started out with borrowed computers, modems and telephones. It was considered to be cost-effective for the scientific world as the Buenos Aires University Library and others could thus compensate for their lack of bibliographic and informative material for an extremely low cost.
There was a lot of controversy surrounding this project. How is it that a university without sufficient funds to buy scientific journals, could afford to communicate with the world? Very different from today, where not only the University but everyone from their homes and from laptops are in communication with the rest of the world. The internet phenomenon, is available to hard rock bands, mayonnaise makers, not to mention journalistic and information companies. These opportunities are not equatable nation-wide, but we are seeing the development of different areas away from Buenos Aires that are joining the web that we hope to see extended throughout the country.
Information began to flow. The nets began to develop in different countries of the world, regardless of whether developed or underdeveloped. Public and private support was requested. Thus the first computers, a telephone line and a new job as a computer telecommunications operator were created in Argentina.
The node at the Foreign Affairs Ministry was continuously improving and, since it had the best equipment, it became the central node.
During this first stage, the Pan American Health Organization began its activities in Argentina (OPS). At this stage, it was very important to widen the training for the people using the net. That is how we connected the Belgrano Hospital to the Internet via electronic mail in 1989, and we started on going training on the use of these new technologies for all the hospital personnel. Some of the people trained are operating personal computers without having any previous knowledge on how to type thanks to their effort and the continuing education programs available.
In an unprecedented growth, from the few existing nodes in 1984, today in 1996 there are about 2000 nodes distributed throughout the country. It is impossible to give an exact figure, since the number of nodes is constantly growing.
This coverage increases with the improvement of the telephone lines, better telephonic services and an increasing number of people hoping to spread the health net throughout the country, working together without being paid for this extra effort. This continues to remind us of the spirit of those pioneering radio amateurs. On the other hand, some physicians have a fear of being left out, a fear of losing a very powerful weapon that their colleagues are using more and more.
Since 1992, the Scientific Communications Center of the University of Buenos Aires has had the mission to build, maintain and operate the University net. Little by little more educators, researchers and students are using the net for communicating with colleagues world-wide and for accessing information databases abroad.
The University of Buenos Aires is connecting their academic units through dedicated high speed links so that they can be connected to the rest of the national and international Internet community. The academic units have made their information available and they can now interact collaboratively. This communication has become necessary for all the knowledge updating, educating and researching carried out in a university of that academic caliber.
We believe that investigation produces knowledge and that, with these new tools, it is possible to revolutionise the forms of classroom and distance education. In this way scientific knowledge will be available not only to the academic community of the University of Buenos Aires but also to the national and international community. The members of the UBA will be able to access the information generated in different academic institutions world-wide, enjoying the opportunity to search for information without even knowing where it is located.
The interconnected academic units are: Pharmacy and Biochemistry, Medicine, Psychology, Philosophy, Social Sciences, Law, Economic Sciences, Engineering, Architecture, Exact Sciences, Agronomy, Dentistry, Veterinary Sciences plus 13 Faculties, the College National of Buenos Aires and the University Rectorate. They are also connected to other institutes such as Ingeniería Biológica (Biological Engineering), La Fundación Campomar (The Campomar Foundation), El Instituto de Astronomía y Física del Espacio (The Institute of Astronomy and of Space Physics), el Centro de Investigaciones de Mar y la Atmósfera (The Center of Atmosphere and Sea Research) el Instituto de Cálculo (The Institute of Calculation), el Instituto de Tecnología Industrial (The Institute of Industrial Technology), el Instituto de Tecnología Agropecuaria (The Agricultural Technology Institute), la Secretaría de Ciencia y de Técnica de la Nación (SECYT) (The National Secretariat for Science and Technology). The university net has its own 128 K link with the rest of the world. Every academic unit is installing its own net so that educators, researchers and students can share their information.
At the same time this net is integrated with the Project University Interconnection Net (RIU) that is linked to 33 national universities and to other foreign institutes; thus the net communicates with other entities such as the Universities of La Plata, Córdoba, Bahía Blanca, Litoral, San Luis, Nordeste, Cuyo, the CONAE, the CNEA, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Education and many others.
We realize how important it is to have a mechanism providing communication for the Argentinean scientific system. Soon 33 national universities will be interconnected. The net today is as important as having a place to work, electricity, water, or a telephone. It means total reliance on a tool that provides the means to overcome the obstacles and to break with the isolation that previously kept us incommunicado and away from large centers of knowledge.
Starting in mid 1995, the independent professionals, the companies and private institutions have been able to again access to the Internet through commercial companies.
The increase of computer communications in our country and the development of Medical Informatics in these last few years in Argentina has been very significant, with a grater number of physicians and paramedics, using computers for self teaching. Access to international databases like the National Library of Medicine (NLM) is the kind of activity which brings integration and immediate results, because the first thing a user integrated to the system looks for is bibliographic search. There are no substantial libraries in Argentina and the ones available are often disorganized due mainly to a lack of funds, structures and to a deficiency in the services, and not to a lack of efficiency of the library staff who do not have access to the materials requested by most professionals.
For a long time subscriptions to scientific magazines had to be suspended as the economical situation in Argentina made them difficult to afford and the postal services were unreliable. The traditional index-card organization system consumes a great amount of human energy usually not recognized by the users. The “electronic library” corrected this gap. Today we can quickly, efficiently and affordably consult the databases of the National Library of Medicine in the United States that provide the most updated information.
The Manuel Belgrano Hospital integrated the beta test system that, towards the late 80’s, was carried out by some centers in Argentina. Together with the WHO and the University of Chile, they made the tools effective. That is how the search culture was originated in hospital physicians.
The evolution of the number of searches requested during the last four years is as follows:
1992 178
1993 191
1994 242
1995 284
In three years the electronic traffic was doubled because of the electronic searches at the Belgrano Hospital.
The evolution of the messages received through e-mail is as follows:
1992 1107
1993 2254
1994 2303
1995 4281
In the last three years, the traffic has doubled, the greatest increase took place in 1995 with improved access facilities to full Internet through different public and private organizations.
The Belgrano Hospital was connected to full Internet on May 15, 1996 and has had a www screen at the WHO node and at PCCP since mid 1995.
Electronic mail always us to take part in consultations with remote places and always professionals at remote places to keep in touch with their former teachers. Job vacancies and searches are carried out, scientific congresses and symposiums are published, information on the resolutions of the Administración Nacional de Medicamentos (ANMAT) (National Administration of Medicines) about undesirable drug effects, drug abreactions and guidance alerts about discontinuation of medications. The ANMAT’s Programa de Farmacovigilancia (Drug Surveillance Program) is also carried out through this means, and providing instant communication of the undesirable side effects of a drug from all over the country. As for many aspects of information science, we can equally state that the limit is only set by imagination. A reduction in the costs of communication will enable a strong expansion of image and sound transmission, widening the field of possibilities for clinical consultations and imaging. There are already multiple centers in Argentina carrying out this kind of consultations with other centers of excellence places in Argentina and abroad.
At present a rapid expansion of optical fiber networking is taking place in different cities throughout the country. This means that the obsolete nodes with the old, damp, cloth covered rusty copper wires are being replaced by this modern technology that allows us to communicate more rapidly and for less cost. This new equipment may even be installed simultaneously in developed countries and in Argentina. Once again the implementation of this technology is uneven for the different regions, and in some places a great effort still remains to be made in the training of the personnel in the use of the new developments.
This will be the principal task for the next few years.
The Healthnet is basically very cooperative. It inter-works with the operational work of the user. It works if the user provides information while collecting information, that is ‘gives and takes’. We aspire to achieve communication in real time with fees adjusted to reasonable prices. These ten years of considerable effort are starting to bear fruit, as long lists of like medical topics and national and international discussion forums are initiated for topic areas such as Public Health, Quality of Medical Care, Asthma, Cardiology, Psychiatry, Public Hospitals and other healthcare delivery and management disciplines.
We wish to sincerely thank the pioneers and all those whom we forget to mention due to a lack of memory and not to a lack of merits: Alberto Barengols, Fernando Lopez Guerra, Marcela Giussani, Adolfo Galanternik, Scolnik, Adolfo Donofrio, Pedro Collia, Julian Dunaievich, Nicolás Burmeister, Lila Russeaux and many more.