21st century house call: the Internet and the World Wide Web

Changes in health care delivery and the explosion of health information available on the Internet are affecting primary care practice in America. The provider is no longer the distributor, interpreter, and filter of information in the health care setting. Clients are becoming informed about their treatment options via the World Wide Web and are eager to discuss their therapeutic alternatives, gleaned from a variety of sources, with their practitioners. The shifting paradigm of practitioners as information provider to information broker is explored. Useful sites for primary care providers and guidelines for obtaining and evaluating electronically available information is provided. Additionally, caveats in this era of electronic communication are presented.