The internet had its origins four decades ago on January 1, 1983, with the launch of the “Transfer Control Protocol/Internetwork Protocol” (TCP/IP) that enabled different computers to communicate with one another. 1 In the early days, communication was slow with transfer rates of a few kilobits per second compared with today, when rates 100 million times faster are standard in many countries. Four decades of development have seen the internet become available almost everywhere, even in remote areas. Access to the internet using cell phones is relatively cheap and now extends to most lower income countries (LICs). 2 Many students, probably the majority, in the Asia-Pacific region access information from the internet using their phones and mobile devices rather than the ubiquitous large computer screens of Health Informatics Centre (HIC) in universities. The concept of cloud computing was discussed in the 1990s and has been in common use for the past decade. 3 With its huge storage capacity, the Cloud enables the accumulation of vast amounts of personal data and very large data sets. All aspects of our lives have been impacted by the internet; public health and medicine are no exceptions.
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