computer and medical symbol
Consumers, the Internet, and Medicine
The internet makes it much easier for patients and families to research medical issues for themselves, but there is also a lot of bad information on the internet.  Do doctors benefit from having more informed patients, or does the internet just complicate their work because patients don't trust doctors' expertise any more? Are doctors resisting the impact of the internet the way they resisted the stethascope?  Is the internet changing the relationship between doctors and patients for the good or harming it?  Please focus on patients using the internet, not on how it is useful to doctors.

http://www.duke.edu/~djs13/pps126/healthcare.htm

http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,35516,00.html

http://www.ecri.org/Patient_Information/HTTrends_Internet_Use_Article.pdf

http://www.ispub.com/ostia/index.php?xmlFilePath=journals/ijh/vol2n2/consumer.xml

http://www.jmir.org/2001/4/e28/

http://www.jabfm.org/cgi/content/full/19/1/39

http://medrants.com/index.php/archives/2620

http://www.pubmedcentral.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=57970

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1550564

http://hea.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/10/4/461