Information system linking a medical school with practitioners and hospitals

A recently established medical information network uses computers and telephone lines to link rural Georgia medical practitioners, Georgia hospitals, and the Mercer University School of Medicine (MUSM) in Macon, Georgia. This network, the Georgia Interactive Network for Medical Information (GaIN), provides a service and educational support system for its members. The GaIN model embodies many of the educational and information management principles endorsed by two reports by the Association of American Medical Colleges: the 1984 report of the Project Panel on the General Professional Education of the Physician and a 1982 project report called "Academic Information in the Academic Health Sciences Center." The design, services, utilization patterns, and results of the GaIN project and implications for the network's future are described. Use of the GaIN has made MUSM students more at ease with computers, has connected MUSM with remote teaching sites and rural practices, and has served as a catalyst for Georgia physicians' investigation of computer applications to support health care delivery in the state.