0
April 16, 1997, Vol 277, No. 15 >
ARTICLE | April 16, 1997

Assessing, Controlling, and Assuring the Quality of Medical Information on the Internet: Title and subTitle BreakCaveant Lector et Viewor—Let the Reader and Viewer Beware FREE

William M. Silberg; George D. Lundberg, MD; Robert A. Musacchio, PhD
[+] Author Affiliations

Mr Silberg is Editorial Director, New Media Office, Scientific Information and Multimedia Group (e-mail: Bill_Silberg@ama-assn.org); Dr Lundberg is Editor, JAMA (e-mail: George_Lundberg@ama-assn.org); and Dr Musacchio is Vice President of Information Resources and Chief Information Officer (e-mail: Robert_Musacchio @ama-assn.org), American Medical Association, Chicago, III.


JAMA. 1997;277(15):1244-1245. doi:10.1001/jama.1997.03540390074039
Text Size: A A A
Published online
Article
References

Health care professionals and patients alike should view with equal parts delight and concern the exponential growth of the Internet (the Net), and especially its graphical, user-friendly subset, the World Wide Web (the Web), as a medical information delivery tool.1,2 Delight because the Internet hosts a large number of high-quality medical resources and poses seemingly endless opportunities to inform, teach, and connect professionals and patients alike. Concern because the fulfillment of that promise remains discouragingly distant. Technical glitches aside, when it comes to medical information, the Internet too often resembles a cocktail conversation rather than a tool for effective health care communication and decision making.

See also p 1258.

The problem is not too little information but too much, vast chunks of it incomplete, misleading, or inaccurate, and not only in the medical arena.3,4 The Net—and especially the Web—has the potential to become the world's largest vanity press.

REFERENCES

1 +
Lundberg GD, for the JAMA Review Group.  One multimedia medical world . JAMA . 1995;;274:655.
2 +
Kassirer J.  The next transformation in the delivery of health care . N Engl J Med . 1995;;332:52-54.
3 +
Achenbach J.  Reality check: you can't believe everything you read, but you'd better believe this . Washington Post . (December 4) , 1996;:C1.
4 +
 Medical help on the Internet . Consumer Rep . 1997;;62:27-31.
5 +
Lundberg GD.  Providing reliable medical information to the public—caveat lector . JAMA . 1989;;262:945-946.
6 +
 Guarding the guardians: research on editorial peer review: selected proceedings from the First International Congress on Peer Review in Biomedical Publication . JAMA . 1990;;263:1317-1441.
7 +
Ferguson T. Health Online . Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co; 1996;:201-236.
8 +
Widman L, Tong D.  Requests for medical advice from patients and families to health care providers who publish on the World Wide Web . Arch Intern Med . 1997;; 157:209-212.
9 +
Health on the Net Foundation, http://www.hon.ch. Accessed March 20, 1997.
10 +
Public hearings, Food and Drug Administration and the Internet, Advertising and Promotion of Medical Products; October 16-17, 1996
11 +
Silver Spring, Md. Hearing transcript available (http://www.fda.gov/opacom/morechoices/transcript1096/fdainet.html). Accessed March 18, 1997.

Figures

Tables

Interactive Graphics

Video

Country-Specific Mortality and Growth Failure in Infancy and Yound Children and Association With Material Stature

Use interactive graphics and maps to view and sort country-specific infant and early dhildhood mortality and growth failure data and their association with maternal

1 +
Lundberg GD, for the JAMA Review Group.  One multimedia medical world . JAMA . 1995;;274:655.
2 +
Kassirer J.  The next transformation in the delivery of health care . N Engl J Med . 1995;;332:52-54.
3 +
Achenbach J.  Reality check: you can't believe everything you read, but you'd better believe this . Washington Post . (December 4) , 1996;:C1.
4 +
 Medical help on the Internet . Consumer Rep . 1997;;62:27-31.
5 +
Lundberg GD.  Providing reliable medical information to the public—caveat lector . JAMA . 1989;;262:945-946.
6 +
 Guarding the guardians: research on editorial peer review: selected proceedings from the First International Congress on Peer Review in Biomedical Publication . JAMA . 1990;;263:1317-1441.
7 +
Ferguson T. Health Online . Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co; 1996;:201-236.
8 +
Widman L, Tong D.  Requests for medical advice from patients and families to health care providers who publish on the World Wide Web . Arch Intern Med . 1997;; 157:209-212.
9 +
Health on the Net Foundation, http://www.hon.ch. Accessed March 20, 1997.
10 +
Public hearings, Food and Drug Administration and the Internet, Advertising and Promotion of Medical Products; October 16-17, 1996
11 +
Silver Spring, Md. Hearing transcript available (http://www.fda.gov/opacom/morechoices/transcript1096/fdainet.html). Accessed March 18, 1997.

Letters

Submit a Letter
CME Course for:


You need to register in order to view this quiz.


To understand the clinical management of acute heart failure syndromes.
Accreditation Information The American Medical Association is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
The AMA designates this journal-based CME activity for a maximum of 1 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditTM per course. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Physicians who complete the CME course and score at least 80% correct on the quiz are eligible for AMA PRA Category 1 CreditTM.
Note: You must get at least of the answers correct to pass this quiz.
Note: You must get at least of the answers correct to pass this quiz.
You have not filled in all the answers to complete this quiz
The following questions were not answered:
Sorry, you have unsuccessfully completed this CME quiz with a score of
The following questions were not answered correctly:
For CME Course: A Proposed Model for Initial Assessment and Management of Acute Heart Failure Syndromes
Indicate what changes(s) you will implement in your practice, if any, based on this CME course.
To view and print your certificate and access a summary of your CME courses go to My CME.
NOTE:
Citing articles are presented as examples only. In non-demo SCM6 implementation, integration with CrossRef’s “Cited By” API will populate this tab (http://www.crossref.org/citedby.html).
Compression-Only CPR: Pushing the Science Forward
Cone
AAM 2010;304:1493-1495.
All you need to read in the other general journals
BMJ 2010;341:c5893-c1494.
Submit a Response

Some tools below are only available to our subscribers or users with an online account.

Related Content

Customize your page view by dragging & repositioning the boxes below.

© 2012 American Medical Association. All Rights Reserved.
Powered bySilverchair Information Systems