9318511 Yablonka The value to academic health care organizations of access to the Internet has been well documented in the literature. A Northwestern Memorial Hospital Network (NMHNET) connection to the Internet would provide a critical service as Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH) moves forward in the delivery of care to our patients and the support of research and education. NMH has deployed a high speed network over the last several years. NMH is continuing this substantial investment with a new high performance, TCP/IP network infrastructure to support advanced clinical applications such as: clinical decision support systems, diagnostic imaging and the creation of electronic patient records. This grant request will provide over the two years a connection to the Internet with the appropriate hardware and an opportunity to improve patient care, research and education at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. NMH needs to provide a connection for hospital clinicians, researchers and educators to communicate with NIH, NLM, Supercomputers in Champaign, IL, and colleagues and co- investigators across the nation via E-Mail. We must remove these barriers in order to enhance our support of patient care, research and education. The connection of NMHNET to the Internet is a vital link to our clinicians, researchers and educators. These initiatives being undertaken with our partners at Northwestern University Medical School (NUMS) constitute the development of a highly advanced medical center network providing services to our diverse clinical, research and academic staffs. ***
