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

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Description

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.

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Cullen reviews issues and literature related to online clinical and consumer health information. Unlike many books bearing similar titles, this is not a bibliography of Internet health resources with information on how best to use them, although Cullen does discuss some prominent Web sites. Rather, this work covers the organization of online health information; the various standards that exist for ensuring its accuracy (and their effectiveness); and the ways that online information is changing how health professionals and the public learn, work, and communicate. Cullen considers current trends such as evidence-based medicine, open access to the medical journal literature, and integration of health information systems. She addresses issues and Web sites from outside the US and UK. This book will be very useful for students in library and information science programs with a focus on health sciences, as well as for practicing health sciences librarians. Some health professionals and students researching the impact of online health information will also find it helpful. Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. * Choice *
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 *

Author Bio

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