Computer supported multimedia environment for the support of long-distance collaboration in medicine

Medicine is heavily dependent on computer supported systems that have become integral to the diagnosis and treatment of the disease. At the same time, the need for all kinds of collaboration grows. New technologies promise the ability for teams and individuals to conduct collaborative work using teleinformatics resources through electronic interaction in virtual distributed laboratory spaces called also collaboratory. A collaboratory is designed to enable close ties between the collaborating partners, to accelerate the development and dissemination of basic knowledge, and to minimize the time lag between diagnosis and corresponding treatment. The paper presents the architecture of our collaboratory and some basic teleinformatics tools for the support of collaboration which were selected in the preparatory phase of the project.