from ACM Newsbrief New Social Network for Debating Medical Cases Technical University of Madrid (Spain) (07/11/12) Eduardo Martinez Technical University of Madrid researcher Albert Moreira has developed SANAR, an online platform designed to facilitate the exchange of information among medical practitioners from different parts of the world. The SANAR platform enables physicians to hold medical discussions in a Web-based environment and overcome the organizational problems of arranging group sessions or the cost and infrastructure hurdles of videoconferencing meetings. The platform also implements several security protocols and procedures to guarantee secure information and image management. "It is planned to evolve SANAR by building a module to better support case studies in an academic environment," Moreira says. He notes SANAR can be used for image-processing analysis, software engineering, software engineering experimentation, intelligent virtual environments, and data mining, among other applications. "This movement will be the groundwork for building and accepting key platform contents," Moreira says. "From here, we will be able to open up the system to the whole medical community, including nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists, dentists, etc." http://www.fi.upm.es/?id=tablon&acciongt=consulta1&idet=1142 Barry Wellman _______________________________________________________________________ S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology, FRSC NetLab Director Department of Sociology 725 Spadina Avenue, Room 388 University of Toronto Toronto Canada M5S 2J4 twitter:barrywellman http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman fax:+1-416-978-3963 Updating history: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php Just published: NETWORKED: The New Social Operating System. Lee Rainie and Barry Wellman. MIT Press. http://www.amazon.com/Networked-New-Social-Operating-System/dp/0262017199/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325258020&sr=1-1 Hardbound $19; Kindle $16 http://www.amazon.ca/Networked-New-Social-Operating-System/dp/0262017199/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1336697601&sr=1-4 _______________________________________________________________________