Use of the Internet for teaching in nuclear medicine.

The Internet provides several new capabilities for education in nuclear medicine, including learning at a distance, facilitation of collaboration, increased availability of training resources, and ability to develop interactive teaching materials. Dedicated case-authoring software aided development of digital teaching files at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology and the Joint Program in Nuclear Medicine. Accesses to these two teaching files from sites around the world have grown rapidly. Improvements in the speed of the Internet will allow inclusion of more images at higher resolution and more extensive use of cine. Development of server-based software will allow simulation of the actual image-reading environment. A better understanding of how to use this new media will spur continued expansion in use of the Internet for nuclear medical education.