Oncoinformatics for the healthcare professional: oncology databases and blogs

Abstract

Medical informatics is a basic biomedical science that has a wide variety of application areas which involve improvements in the management of any information relevant to patient care and community health. Oncoinformatics is an application science under this broad field. This area applies informatics, internet, and interactive technologies with the aim of improving the standards of care for the cancer patient. The rapid growth of the World Wide Web as a tool for global connectivity has impacted the way in which health-related information is distributed and accessed over the internet. Many people frequently use the internet for the searching of drug and other health-related information. Oncoinformatics has enabled the collation of a huge amount of information in the area of oncology. Several oncology-specific databases and blogs that are clinically relevant are described in this paper. The impact of informatics technologies and cybermedicine in oncology is also discussed.