Yonago Acta medica 1996;39:113–118
A Computer System to Retrieve Forensic Medical Data Using the Internet
Masashi Inoue*†, Akihiko Suyama‡, Terutaka Inoue*, Shunsuke Meshitsuka† and Yoshito Irizawa*
*Department of Legal Medicine, †Department of Health Systems and Informatics and
‡Department of Hygiene, Faculty of Medicine, Tottori University, Yonago 683, Japan
A database system was designed, created and tested which enables users to easily retrieve
forensic medical information, such as autopsy reports. The system was designed utilizing
the World Wide Web, which at present is the most popular application for accessing
the Internet. The hardware of this system consisted of two main parts: a server computer
providing the service and a client computer requesting the service. Information could
be accessed at any time by client machines that were Internet subscribers. The ease of
"point and click" searching for terms of interest was a particular benefit of this system.
The other advantage of this system was that graphic images could also be obtained.
Graphic images can be very useful for forensic scientists. For example, the ability to
display images of organs promotes the understanding of autopsies. It was found that
the Internet was a very useful tool for forensic research.
Key words: computer system; database; forensic medicine; Internet
