Family Practice Web Sites: New Perspectives for Patient Care and Health Infor

mation?

Family Medicine,2010

Tobias Freund, MD; Michaela Freund, RN; Cornelia Mahler, RN, MA; Ulrich Schwantes, MD; Dominik Ose, MPH; Stefanie Joos, MD; Joachim Szecsenyi, MD, MSc

Background and Objectives

To cater to the needs of informed and proactive patients in family medicine, health care providers could offer access to care and health information via practice Web sites.

To determine the content and quality of family medicine Web sites, we performed a cross-sectional study on a large sample of family practices’ web sites in Berlin, Germany.

Method

Screened all 1,767 registered family physicians in Berlin and using Google look up the Internet presence of every practice.

Using a checklist, we determined the provision of different tasks for the sharing of information with patients.

Results

Complementary medicine

Health information was referenced on only 30% (n=31) of the Web sites

Discussion

Online tools for appointment scheduling or prescription ordering were rarely provided.

This may be due to the lack of time and financial incentives needed for their implementation.

Information about barrier-free access, however, was not routinely given online.

That should be targeted by quality improvement projects for health information Web sites.

Complementary medicine is frequently provided by family physicians in Germany.

The stating of the date and source of information and some legal issues are major domains where there is a need for further improvement in quality.

Limitationslacking detailed assessment of the accuracy of health information provided on family practice Web sites by comparing the content to existing evidence.

Recommendations

Web sites should provide details about purpose, authors, and date of creation/update.

Barrier-free Web design should be used. Health information should be referenced accurate

ly. Consider provision of online appointment scheduli

ng and online prescription ordering.