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

(Hardback)

Available Formats

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

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.

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 *

Author Bio

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