MAN

Metropolitan Area Network. A network of computers whose reach extends to a metropolitan area. MANs may be used to link telemedicine applications at a data rate similar to DS1. In some cases, MANs may be used by cable companies to offer links to off-network services such as the internet, airline reservation systems, and commercial information services, in addition to data exchange abilities. Compared to LAN and WAN, MAN is in between the two.

Mb

Megabyte. A measure of computer storage and memory capacity. One Mb is equivalent to 1.024 million bytes, 1,024 thousand bytes, or 1.024 kbs. However, this term is also applied to the more rounded term of 1 million bytes.

Mbps

Megabits per second. A measure of bandwidth and rate of data flow in digital transmission. One Mbps is equivalent to one million bits per second.

MEDIX

Medical Data Interchange Standard. Established by the IEEE, this data communication protocol is utilized at the applications level.

Medical Informatics

A system comprised of computer science, information science, and health sciences created to assist in the management and processing of data to support the execution of health care.

Mhz

Megahertz. A measure of bandwidth and rate of information flow for analog transmission. One Mhz equals 10 to the sixth power cycles per second.

Modem

Modulator/De-modulator. A device that translates digital signals to pulse tone (analog) signals to enable transmission over telephone lines and reconverts them to digital form at the point of reception, thus permitting a computer to communicate with another computer over a regular telephone line. These devices are usually identified by the speed (in bits per second or bps) of communication they permit. The higher the bps, the faster the modem.

MPEG

Motion Picture Experts Group. A standard for compressing digital video images.

Multimedia

A term which broadly applies to the transmission and manipulation of any form of information, including words, pictures, videos, music, numbers, or handwriting. This information is regarded as simply digital bits-zeroes and ones-as it is to a digital telecommunications link that carries information in bit form. The substantial increase in computing power permits integrated patient records with audio and video clips.

Multiplexer

By combining and interweaving low-capacity channels in discrete time or frequency slices, this equipment allows transmission of multiple lines of audio, video or data information in one high-capacity communications channel.