[Swiss surgery: quo vadis? Reader and market analysis for strategic positioning of a specialty journal].

Unlabelled: Scientific journals currently face challenges including cost pressures caused by economic constraints, increasing rivalry among competitors, limited market potential of non-english speaking journals, increasing medical specialization with resulting market fragmentation, and internet-based competition. We therefore analyzed strategic opportunities of the journal Swiss Surgery on the basis of customer surveys and of a market analysis.

Results: Swiss surgeons expressed their interest in the continuation of the journal but also indicated their support for changes in its concept and for an increased use of electronic media.

[Internet communication between family physicians and the university hospital].

The potential of electronic communication in medicine is assessed based on an analysis of a pilot project pertaining to internet based communication among referring and hospital physicians. Advantages of electronic data exchange in medicine pertain to speed and capacity for data transfer, availability of data and data integration, ultimately enabling consistent medical case management. Quality requirements of electronic communication of medical data are related to safety, availability, data integration, potential for case management and system qualities.

Knowledge and acceptance of telemedicine in surgery: a survey.

A questionnaire was sent to the chief surgeons at 141 Swiss hospitals to evaluate their knowledge and acceptance of telemedicine in surgery. The response rate was 69%. Ninety-three per cent of all surgical departments used computer technology, 85% regularly used the Web and 88% had an internal hospital network.