Medicine on the Internet

"The single major apprehension associated to the Internet is the excellence of material followed by safety of client statistics, the gathering of particular material, concerns over slowdown, collapse, and the capability to make the business run smoothly" (Hebda and Czar, 2009).There are disadvantages and advantages to having the Internet as a resource for health care applications used in the medical field.

The Internet offers exceptional access to healthcare information. According to Harrison and Lee (2006) 90% of people with Internet access have used it to search for health information at some point. Unfortunately, the accuracy, readability, depth, diversity, and presentation of this content vary greatly from site to site. Some online information can even be harmful. The lack of controlling body over the Internet makes it impossible to regulate the quality of information before posting. For this reason, healthcare professionals and consumers must be wary (Hebda and Czar, 2009). If anything, online information should be evaluated thoroughly and made sure it is peer-reviewed and passed by research before assuming and inputting "false" information that could be misleading. There should be legitimacy of the material used, how comprehensible the material is, the date of the information or modification, and if it's influenced or for a certain fact.

Advantages that can be taken into consideration while using the Internet as a resourceful resort is that the "Professionals can use E-commerce, or e-business" (Hebda and Czar, 2009). It uses Internet knowledge to run healthcare organizations with strategies to securely and rapidly interchange material with additional business individuals. "Consumer health informatics is the use of electronic information and communication to improve medical outcomes and the healthcare decision-making process from the patient or consumer perspective" (Hebda and Czar, 2009).