Patient information on cancer

doi:10.1136/bmj.321.7252.47/a

BMJ 2000;321:47 ( 1 July )

Letters

Patient information on cancer

Access to the information should be made easier

Newspaper read is good predictor of information needs

Access to the information should be made easier

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ Jones et al found that patients with cancer preferred a computer system giving personalised information to one thatgave general information.¹ This raises questions about theusefulness of the internet as a source of primary informationfor these patients. Cost, technological barriers, and informationretrieval are other reasons to question the use of the internetas a primary source ofinformation.

To encourage home access the government has announced a scheme for cheaper computers. Telephone costs, however, are stillrelatively high. There may also be technological barriers: 18%of patients in one American practice (mean age 27) were initiallyunable to perform any computer functions on their own and requiredhelp from a medical student to use the internet.² Computerexperience among older British patients is much lower: among 200gastroenterology outpatients in Glasgow (mean age 54) 68% hadnever used a computer before.³

Good quality information for . . . [Full text of this article]

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