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Physicians' Internet activities and their perceived coping with the medical information
1The Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association P.O. Box 1152 Sentrumon. N-0107 Oslo, Norway. magne.nylenna@legeforeningen.no
Objective:
To describe and analyze physicians' Internet activities and how this relates to their coping with medical information.
Methods:
Postal survey among 1276 Norwegian physicians (response rate 78%).
Results:
Seventy-two percent of all physicians had access to the Internet in 1999, up from 38% in 1997. One out of two physicians use the Internet for professional purposes. Web-based search is the dominant activity and Internet use is closely related to other ways of information-seeking (reading and attending professional meetings). A total of 70% of the respondents reported ability to obtain sufficient information for keeping updated in their daily work. "Internet-active"-physicians reported a higher rate of such ability than physicians without Internet access (74% vs 65%).
Conclusion:
The Internet plays an increasingly important role in physicians' professional updating. The impact of new information technology on the medical community should be carefully monitored in the future.