The Patient’s Internet Handbook

Citation

Cooke, A. (2003), "The Patient’s Internet Handbook", Program: electronic library and information systems, Vol. 37 No. 2, pp. 129-130. https://doi.org/10.1108/prog.2003.37.2.129.5

The availability of health information via the Internet has received a great deal of attention for a number of years now and, like any topic that relates to the Internet, several books have been written which consider the problems and issues relating to the availability of material. A Guide to Healthcare Resources on the Internet and The Patient’s Internet Handbook are two fairly recent additions to the market. They have been written/edited by well‐known authors in the field. Robert Kiley has been the Information Services Manager at the Wellcome Society for the History and Understanding of Medicine at the Wellcome Trust for a number of years, and is now Head of Systems Strategy at the same institution; he has authored several books in this area, as well as editing He@lth Information on the Internet (an e‐journal available at http://www.rsm.ac.uk/pub/hii.htm) from 1998 until 2000. Elizabeth Graham also works at the Wellcome Trust and is now Information Services Manager. A Guide to Healthcare Resources on the Internet contains 13 chapters by different authors, many of whom are recognised experts in the area of health‐related resources available via the Internet.

The stated aim of A Guide to Healthcare Resources on the Internet is to assist healthcare professionals in locating useful resources quickly and easily – “to save busy professionals hours of research, enabling them to go direct to relevant and evaluated sites”. As mentioned, it is divided into 13 chapters, each chapter covering a separate topic or issue. Some chapters are speciality specific (renal medicine, mental health, pregnancy and childbirth, gynaecology and reproductive medicine, cancer, orthopaedics, nursing, pharmacy), and others relate to types of information or skills (evidence‐based medicine, statistics, finding information, professional health portals, human genome information).

The main advantage of this book is its succinctness – most of the chapters are under ten pages in length and each provides a concise overview of the area by highlighting key resources. Many of the chapters were originally published as independent articles in He@lth Information on the Internet. The structure of the book reflects this as each chapter is self‐contained and the whole is designed to be dipped into, chapter‐by‐chapter, rather than read cover‐to‐cover. The original articles are still freely available via the Internet, although they have been significantly revised and updated for inclusion in the book.

One drawback of the text is that a wide range of topics has been covered in a little over 100 pages – many healthcare professionals are likely to want more detail and coverage of a greater range of sites within their own specialities. In addition, although several chapters refer to resources of worldwide interest, there is a bias towards UK‐based materials. Furthermore, the inevitability of publishing any text on this subject is that some of the material is already out‐of‐date. For example, the nursing chapter was written prior to the launch of NMAP (the UK’s gateway to high quality Internet resources in nursing, midwifery and allied health care available at: http://nmap.ac.uk). Although there is a link to this site from the supporting Web site, the book refers to an earlier version of the service, “Nursing and healthcare resources on the Internet”, which no longer exists.

Despite these drawbacks, the chapters on finding information and healthcare portals mean that readers are equipped with the skills to look beyond the sites mentioned in the text. Therefore, this is likely to be a useful introductory text for healthcare professionals, as well as information professionals faced with health‐related queries.

The Patient’s Internet Handbook is aimed specifically at patients in the UK, and therefore offers a refreshing new angle to the existing texts covering health information available via the Internet.

The first section contains an introduction to consumer health information available via the Internet, with an overview of how to connect to the Internet and details about Web browsers and e‐mail. Section two is a detailed guide to searching. It begins with an overview of generic search engines, such as Google, and evaluated subject gateways, such as MEDLINEplus (see http://medlineplus.gov). Medical databases, such as the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (see www.update‐software.com/cochrane) are examined in detail, with a comparison of medical databases and search engines. There is also a chapter on discussion lists and newsgroups. Section three covers particular topic areas – the UK National Health Service (NHS), drug information, complementary and alternative medicine, and pregnancy, childbirth and infant care. The penultimate section, “Keeping safe”, explores the varying quality of health information on the Internet, as well as finding information in preparation for a consultation with a doctor. Section five is a guide to Internet‐based resources for 100 medical conditions.

The foreword has been written by a UK doctor, journalist and television presenter, Phil Hammond. He states “swapping blind trust in doctors for blind trust in the Internet would be disastrous”. However, the reality is that consumers of health information are faced with a wealth of resources and little guidance on how to select accurate health information. This text offers the necessary support and guidance, providing a comprehensive guide for patients in the UK, as well as their carers, friends and family. The sections on the NHS and drug information are particularly useful, especially as each of these topics is a minefield. They have been handled succinctly and in a style which is suitable for the layperson. Moreover, the breadth of content means this guide will not only be useful to the intended audience, but also to public librarians faced with answering health‐related enquiries, as well as to healthcare professionals, who are often themselves faced with sifting through and evaluating the vast quantity of Internet‐based health materials.

My only reservation about this text is the extensive resource guide which forms almost half of the book, especially as the nature of its content renders it particularly time‐sensitive. It may have been more useful for the authors to refer to a site such as OMNI (see http://omni.ac.uk), which is more regularly maintained. However, there is a Web site which complements the book( see www.patient‐handbook.co.uk) and services such as OMNI are described in the text elsewhere, and it could be argued that readers are more likely to sift through this book than to learn how to use a service such as OMNI.

What never ceases to amaze me is the regularity with which seemingly intelligent people will see health‐related information on the Internet and believe it, without investigating its authority or likely accuracy. At a recent seminar, the question was raised whether AIDS can be cured by a blood transfusion because this information had been seen on the Internet. Other cures for HIV/AIDS described on the Internet include “zapping” parasites and the use of aloe vera. It is not only patients who are faced with identifying high quality and accurate resources, but also healthcare professionals and library staff. Both of these books offer assistance to these different user groups – the first as a brief and succinct guide to the topic areas listed, and the second as a detailed guide to the range of consumer health information that is now available.