Health-related services on the internet

The primary objective of this study is to evaluate a sample of health-related services available on the internet. In addition, types of new services and service qualities that may be required in the future were estimated. A registered nurse using a questionnaire containing items about usability, quality, and other characteristics related to the subject carried out an evaluation of 100 health-related internet sites, and the results were processed to determine average qualities and graphical presentations for the studied parameters. The services studied differed greatly from each other both in terms of content and quality. A general observation was that sites of larger organizations were, typically, both in terms of presentation and content, more sophisticated than sites of smaller producers. A typical characteristic was the superficiality of the information presented. In conclusion, the internet is an emerging medium for health-related information, and standards for the production and presentation of health content for the internet are still in development. However, even at this early stage, the internet represents a valuable source of information for those in need of health-related information for both health care professionals and consumers.