Medical Podcasting : Changing the Delivery of Medical Information

Medical casting is a big step towards the evolution of on-demand medical information delivery, making it accessible, informative, useful and appealing. This mix presents the medical industry with a very unique opportunity to reach its community through this new medium "Medcasting" is the commercial application of podcasting for medical related institutions. Medcasting is the distribution and publishing of audio and video feeds, that offer medical information delivered over the Internet, for on demand listening. The flexibility of this medium is what will drive the growth of Medical casting tremendously over the next few years. Currently the most useful application for medical institutions looking to make the public aware of its information is to compliment already existent informational web pages. Most institutions have numerous web pages which deliver medical information in text format, by providing an audio or video link on that page it gives the user a different and potentially more effective format for receiving the information. In addition, the expectation is that the medical podcasting services can used to deliver updates to on new medicines or applications from drug companies who would appreciate the opportunity to present their information in a useful and appealing format. When a Doctor attaches his iPod to his computer, the program issues a request for new audio files which may have been posted recently which correspond to his profile. The resulting files are downloaded automatically, and the Doctor is always up to date on the latest information. With one-click you can subscribe to a Medical Podcast that you are interested in. Additional formats that are being used consist of; medical talk shows, where various specialists within each institution will speak or answer questions on a certain topic. Medical lectures and seminars can be recorded and made available for the public or employees to download easily and on-demand. In addition, any information that may need to be delivered to employees can be recorded and made available on an in-house delivery network. For institutions that have thousands of employees, the distribution of company information is very important, and once again this offers each institution a method of on-demand delivery which is convenient to all. Medcasting can also be used as a direct line of communication, by recording video-casts of company messages from executives for company wide distribution. There are numerous uses for medcasting currently, and over the next few years it will explode in popularity. It is beneficial to institutions as well as the consumer, and it will be seen as a great tool in any medical organizations' operations.