Does general practice Google?
Access Status
Authors
Date
2008Type
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Source Title
Additional URLs
ISSN
Faculty
School
Remarks
The link to the Australian Family Physician website is : www.afp.org.au
Reproduced with permission. Permission to reproduce must be sought from the publisher, The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.
Collection
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Searching websites during consultations with patients has been anecdotally reported to be useful by some medical practitioners. We aimed to investigate how and to what extent medical practitioners use the internet to aid clinical consultations. METHODS: A descriptive study of general practitioners in the Osborne Division of General Practice, Perth, Western Australia (N=132), using a postal questionnaire sent in May and June 2007. RESULTS: Ninety-three percent of those surveyed had broadband access. The majority used the computer for clinical tasks such as prescribing, ordering tests and writing letters. Fifty-six percent used the internet during consultations. The search engine 'Google' was the most commonly cited website. The most frequently mentioned reason for internet use was finding medical information for patients. DISCUSSION: Computers are now available in most general practices. The internet has impacted upon the traditional doctor-patient relationship. More research is needed into how GPs can better search and use the information available on the internet.
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Mullings, Ben (2012)Although the Internet has increasingly been the focus of research over the past decade, there have been relatively few studies about how the full variety of Internet communication tools can be used for the purpose of ...
-
Lloyd, Brenda (2012)This research investigates the interaction between Internet based communication, knowledge management in a virtual environment and career management in the Internet environment. The aim was to combine the students’ need ...
-
Johnson, Genevieve (2010)Thirty-eight children in first and second grade completed a 10-item rating scale on Internet use at home and school. Results suggested that, in general, more children used the Internet at school than at home but home-based ...