Library Grand Rounds

Guiding your Patients to Reliable Health
Information Resources: Hints for Clinicians
January 20, 2000

An estimated 22 million U.S. adults went online in 1998 to find health information. Almost 1.5 million people visited just one site, drkoop.com, in May 1999. But with all of that interest in consumer-oriented health information, what kind of information are they finding? A study of 371 Web sites about Ewing's sarcoma concluded that 6% of the sites offered "clearly erroneous" information and that at least one third of the sites were not peer reviewed. (Biermann JS. Golladay GJ. Greenfield ML. Baker LH, "Evaluation of cancer information on the Internet." Cancer 86 (3):381-90, 1999 Aug 1).

Clinicians cannot stop patients from searching for medical information on the Web, but they can offer guidance and direction to reliable sites. This Library Grand Rounds pointed clinicians to reliable Web resources for patient and consumer health education, demonstrated several of the better sites, and offered tips on evaluating Web health care information. In addition, Donald St. Germain, M.D., leader of the Dartmouth Community Medical School and the School's partnership with drkoop.com, provided an overview of the issue.

Connect to: Dr. St. Germain's Presentation

See our resource page for more information: Guiding your Patients to Reliable Health Information Resources: Hints for Clinicians

This Library Grand Rounds was videoteleconferenced to the VA/WRJ (TV Studio, Building 28), the Central Vermont Medical Center, and the Cooley Dickinson Hospital.

Please contact Karen Odato, the Libraries' education coordinator, if you have questions or comments or suggestions for future Library Grand Rounds.

The Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center designates this educational activity for up to one hour in Category I credit towards the AMA Physician's Recognition Award. Each physician should claim only those hours of credit that he or she actually spent in the educational activity. The Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians. The Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center takes responsibility for the content, quality, and scientific integrity of this CME activity.