|
  Gunther
Eysenbach and Christian Köhler
Health-Related Searches on the Internet
JAMA 2004; 291: 2946.
There is ongoing uncertainty about how often consumers use the Internet to
search for health-related information. For instance, although a 2000 survey
found that 55% of individuals with Internet access have used the Web to find
health or medical information,Phillipov and Phillips reported that 17 health-related
search terms they found in the first 300 search terms of the Wordtracker Top
500 keyword report comprised fewer than 1% of all queries. It is possible, however,
that people may use many different health-related keywords that are so rare
that they never appear on the Top 500 Keywords list. To address this, we analyzed
a random sample of search terms entered into a search engine over a longer period
of time.
We found that 4.5% of all searches on the web are health-related.
 Eysenbach
G, Kohler C.
How do consumers search for and appraise health information on the world
wide web? Qualitative study using focus groups, usability tests, and in-depth
interviews
British Medical Journal (BMJ
2002; 324: 573-577)
In this study (my doctoral thesis as well) we observed regular Internetusers
on their techniques of retrieving health information on the WWW and described
their appraisal of quality of health information in general.
We found that while consumers said that they looked for the source and design
to assess the credibility of a site, in practice they rarely bothered. And they
explored only the first few links on general search engines when seeking health
information.
The paper was nominated in 11/2002 for the Diana
Forsyth Award by American Medical Informatics Association’s (AMIA's)
People & Organizational Issues Working Group. The award honours the best paper
published over the last year (Spring 2001-Spring 2002) that exemplifies work
in the spirit of Diana Forsythe. Nominees are best papers reporting research
at the intersection of medical informatics and social science. The paper was
one of 9 nominated papers for the award, selected from the world medical literature.
 Koehler
C, Eysenbach G.
Das Internet - Chancen, Risiken und Perspektiven für den
chirurgischen Patienten
(The Internet. Opportunities, risks and perspectives for the surgical
patient)
Der Chirurg (Chirurg
73 (2002) 5, 410-416)
The Internet is not only a passive information resource but, above all, an
interaction medium. It can be harnessed to facilitate quality management. Intelligent
technologies will gain increasing significance in the future, when the WWW develops
towards a "semantic web".
 Eysenbach
G, Kohler C.
Does the internet harm health? Database of adverse events related
to the internet has been set up.
British Medical Journal (BMJ
2002; 324(7331): 239)
While we do have a good understanding of the potential benefits of the Web
for consumers, we do not know much about potential mechanisms of harm through
Internet applications.
Since 2001 we systematically collect published and unpublished cases in the
"Database of Adverse Events Related to the Internet".
 Kohler
C, Darmoni SJ, Mayer MA, Roth-Berghofer TR, Fiene M, Eysenbach G.
MedCIRCLE - The Collaboration for Internet Rating, Certification, Labelling,
and Evaluation of Health Information
Technology and Health Care, Special Issue: Qualit e-Health
(Technol Health Care. 2002;10(6):515)
MedCIRCLE is an EU-funded semantic web project. The aim of MedCIRCLE is to
develop technologies and networks to guide consumers to trustworthy health information
on the Internet.
Lampe K, Cross P, Brickley D, Eysenbach G, Kohler C, Roine R.
Societal Dimensions of Third-party Evaluation of Internet Health Content
Medical Informatics Europe (MIE) 2003 Conference Proceedings (to be published)
read the abstract ...
Mayer MA, Darmoni SJ, Fiene M, Kohler C, Roth-Berghofer TR, Eysenbach G.
MedCIRCLE: The Collaboration for Internet Rating, Certification, Labeling and
Evaluation of Health Information on the Semantic World-Wide-Web
Medical Informatics Europe (MIE) 2003 Conference Proceedings (to be published)
read the abstract ...
Eysenbach G, Kohler C, Yihune G, Lampe K, Cross P, Brickley D.
A metadata vocabulary for self- and third-party labeling of health web-sites:
Health Information Disclosure, Description and Evaluation Language (HIDDEL)
AMIA 2002 Annual Symposium Proceedings
(Supplement to the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association)
(Proc AMIA Annu Fall Symp 2001; (JAMIA Suppl): 169-173)
Eysenbach G, Kohler C, Yihune G, Lampe K, Cross P, Brickley D.
A framework for improving the quality of health information on
the world-wide-web and bettering public (e-)health: The MedCERTAIN
approach.
In: Haux R, Patel V, Hasmann A (eds.) 2001;
Medinfo01, Proceedings of the Tenth World Congress on Medical Informatics:
1450-1454
|
