Health Information on the Internet: A Study of Providers, Quality, and Users

by Rowena Cullen

Overview

The accessibility of health information on the Internet has revolutionized access to clinical information for health practitioners and patients. This access to information has the potential to make a major contribution to health care. However, the effective use of this accessibility depends on an understanding of all the issues involved, from the underlying technologies and economic pressures, to questions of how best to manage quality and privacy, how people seek and use information, and what the barriers to its use are. Cullen's book also examines the extent of health information on the Internet, the providers of websites and their content, and outlines the nature of the paradigm shift affecting knowledge in the health sector.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780865693210
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	11/30/2005
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.62(d)

About the Author

Rowena Cullen is Associate Professor in the School of Information Management at Victoria University of Wellington.

Table of Contents

Illustrations
Preface
1 Health Information on the Internet
2 The Structures of Knowledge Related to Health Information on the Internet
3 Accessing Health Information on the Internet
4 Quality
5 Physicians and Other Health Professionals' Use of the Internet
6 Consumer Health Information on the Internet
7 Telemedicine and Online Medical Services
8 Future trends and challenges
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

Cullen brings together the knowledge of various disciplines contributing to the development of health information on the Internet to address in one place the scattered professional audiences for such information—health informaticians, librarians, doctors, nurses, Web content managers, health-care managers, and others. Cullen addresses information needs and behavior and information sources directed toward practitioners, patients, and their caregivers primarily in Western, English-speaking countries. The volume is not a webliography of best sources but rather focuses on research and theory: Topics include where and how health information is found online; issues related to quality; the needs of clinicians and the needs of patients, and how they can best be met; and the growth of telemedicine.” —SciTech Book News

“Cullen discusses how people seek and use health information, the barriers they encounter, the extent of health information available online, and ways to manage the quality and privacy of health information.” —American Libraries

From the Publisher