Our first award goes to:

Kelvin Tan, MD

If you are looking at Ob/Gyn related information on the Net, it is a safe bet they will have at least one link to something Dr. Kelvin Tan has been involved with. A true pioneer in supporting the global community of Ob/Gyn’s, Dr. Tan was the obvious choice for our first recipient of the OBGYN.net Outstanding Achievement Award. Congratulations Dr. Tan and thank you for your many contributions.

Below are Kelvin’s answers to some questions we asked.

1. How are you serving the Ob/Gyn community with Internet Technology?

Together with Geffrey Klein, listowner OB-GYN-L and my fellow OBGYN colleague Jeffrey Low, we proposed and helped to create in August 1996 the first Internet newsgroup forum sci.med.obgyn. This forum is to facilitate worldwide discussion and education on OBGYN matters. We are currently moderating the forum. A websitefor the forum http://www.obgyn.org.sghas also been created.

I have served as the webmaster of the Singapore OBGYN Web (KKInfoweb) at http://medweb.nus.sg/kkh/since it was first started . This was one of the pioneer web on OBGYN which was started 2 years ago and had actively helped to promote web resources on OBGYN in the earlier days. I could still remember those days where you could count the number of OBGYNrelated sites by the digits of your hands! I also serve as theWebmaster of KK Women's & Children's Hospital Web http://medweb.nus.sg/kkh/kk/since its inception in May 1995.

I am also the webmaster of The Obstetrical & Gynecology Society of Singapore Web http://home.pacific.net.sg/~ogssand the Website of the Perinatal Society of Singapore http://home.pacific.net.sg/~pns.I help out with various other OBGYN related websites e.g. ContinetWebsite of The International Continence Society http://www.continet.org.sg/and FICS (Singapore Section) WWW http://www.ics.org.sg/.

With obstetric anesthetists in my hospital, we created the Singapore Anesthesia Web http://medweb.nus.sg/kkh/sawin 1995.

I am a member of the Web Committee of The International Society of Gynecologic Endoscopy which help to promote the use of the Internet for Gynecologic Endoscopy education and networking in Internet and I am the current Webmaster of The International Society of Gynecologic Endoscopy Web http://www.isge.org.

As a member of the Singapore Medical Association Informatics Subcommittee,I help out with its website http://www.sma.org.sg.With members of the Association of Medical Informatics, Singaporehttp://www.aims.org.sg,we organised MedWeb 96 http://irdu.nus.sg/medweb96/in Feb 96, one of the first medical World Wide Web congress. Besides introducing OBGYN resources and tools in the Internet, I taughtparticipants how to create effective Internet resources for medicaleducation. Together with Associate Professor KC Lun of the National University of Singapore and creator of Cyberspace Hospital http://ch.nus.sg,we organised the first Internet Workshop on Obstetrics & GynecologicalResources http://tan.net/workshopin Nov 1996 which attracted about 25 OBGYN participants worldwide.This workshop showed participants how best to access worldwideresources in OBGYN.

I also gave many presentations & practical demonstrationson the use of Internet for medical and OBGYN education and networkingin local, regional and international medical and OBGYN relatedmeetings/workshops e.g. in New Delhi, Chicago and Singapore forthe past 2 years.

2. Why did you get involved with the Internet?

I used the Internet initially to communicate with overseas friends and colleagues. I got more involved as I found that it is a veryuseful and powerful world wide media/tool and it can help usin many aspects. It is also easy to use and quite fun.

The rapid pace at which Internet technology is progressing makes it very exciting and it opens up more avenue and opportunitiesfor all of us. Besides engaging the Internet for medical educationand networking, I am also involved in other aspects e.g. Editorof Singapore Internet Community Website http://www.sintercom.organd moderator of soc.culture.singapore.moderated. I find all these activities very satisfying.

3. How long have you been using the Internet?

Just 2 years (but that is a long time in Net events!)

4. What has been your greatest reward in using the Internet?

I always try to help and encourage as many of my friends and colleagues to understand and get started in Internet. Seeing them (especially those who have been totally computer illiterate prior) able to use Internet technology effectively is very rewarding. Helping laypersons understand a bit more on OBGYN and medical matters and also having grateful people all over the world thanking youfor helping them in the Net and in OBGYN matters are also very rewarding.

Making new friends in the Net through such efforts are added bonuses.

5. What is the future for the Ob/Gyn community on the Internet- what is possible?

The advent of Internet is a significant milestone in the history of mankind and is likely to have an impact as profound as thatof the discovery of paper or invention of printing. The Internetwill become a new and important way of interaction and networkingfor the Medical community including the Ob/Gyn community.

Continuing OBGYN education as well as public OBGYN education will be conducted more and more on a worldwide scale through the Net. More and more tools and software related to OBGYN education andfacilities will be easily available in the web for sharing andexploring. More and more discussions on OBGYN matters will alsooccur through the Net. The potential of further development forOBGYN education, networking and research within the Net is great.The Ob/Gyn community in the Internet will grow and will become an important asset in enhancing worldwide cooperation & understanding in the fields of Obstetrics and Gynecology.