The Internet as a resource for palliative care and hospice: a review and proposals

The last 3 years have witnessed an enormous growth and utilization of the Internet and its graphical subdivision, the World Wide Web (WWW). Its medical applications offer numerous advantages and strengths, including ease of publication and access to large volumes of information. This paper explores the potential applications of the Internet and the WWW for palliative care and hospice. It will describe the reasons for the immense interest in this medium and discuss the various strengths and weakness of the Internet and the World Wide Web as a Palliative Care resource. Foremost among these weaknesses is the lack of editorial control and the peer review process, allowing anecdotal and unbalanced information to be published. To provide the growing number of health-care professionals and patients who utilize this medium with balanced, evidence-based information, publishing by various palliative care and hospice organizations needs to be encouraged and palliative care electronic journal publishing needs to be accelerated.