Information epidemics, economics, and immunity on the internet
BMJ 1998; 317 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.317.7171.1469 (Published 28 November 1998) Cite this as: BMJ 1998;317:1469
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EDITOR—There has always been variable quality of patient information
and we agree with Coieras musing 1 that the internet is simply a new
carrier of information both good and bad. Patients want health information
and good
information is beneficial to health outcomes. 2 The internet is a
challenge to the medical profession to provide good quality information to
more people than ever before. We would therefore suggest that the
professional associations should take responsibility for putting patient
information on conditions relevant to their speciality on the web.
Notable examples of associations doing just that are the Royal College of
Psychiatrists, Association of Medical Microbiologists and the Royal
College of General
Practitioners who provide large numbers of patient information leaflets on
their web sites. It would be reasonable to expect that the clinical
content of information from such sources is good. If all the royal
colleges and professional medical associations follow their example there
would be a comprehensive and reliable resource of information from UK
based web sites. Help is available, if required, to address issues such as
readability of the
information from the government funded Centre for Health Information
Quality3
The more difficult problem would be to direct patients preferentially
to these sites. The idea of ‘immunising’ computers against poor quality
information is intriguing. 4
Until this becomes a reality or a body providing a hallmark for
quality of information 5 is established, we offer a
specific patient orientated web site with the aim of listing ‘reputable’
sources of UK based patient information, such as from professional
associations and well known patient groups. It has a memorable URL
(www.patient.co.uk) and has become well used.
Tim Kenny General Practitioner
Beverley Kenny General Practitioner
50 The Grove, Gosforth, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE3 1NJ
1. Coiera E Information epidemics, economics, and immunity on the
internet. BMJ 1998;317:1469-1470
2. Kenny T, Wilson RG, Purves IN, et al A PIL for every ill? Patient
information leaflets (PILs): a review of past, present and future use.
Family Practice 1998;15:471-479
3. http://www.centreforhiq.demon.co.uk/
4. Eysenbach G, Diepgen TL. Towards quality management of medical
information on the internet: evaluation, labelling and filtering of
information. BMJ 1998;317:1496-1500
5. Muir Gray JA. Hallmarks for quality of information. BMJ
1998;317:1500
Conflict of interest: T and BJ Kenny maintain the website
www.patient.co.uk
Competing interests: No competing interests
Poisonous Snakes on the Web
EDITOR - Information is a key-factor in disaster management. The
Internet is perhaps the
tool holding greatest promise for information dissemination, however, it
has been little
used in disaster information system, especially in Asia. Since 1995 we
have organized the
Global Health Disaster Network (GHDNet) which is designed to be a backbone
of information
systems should a disaster occur. The Network involves the development of
Home pages for
disaster-related organization, and a mailing list to those in Emergency
Medicine. There is
precious little information as to the potential of the Internet in
Disasters. Here is a
case study with venomous snake in Cambodia, to show the power of the
Internet in disaster
situations.
On Aug.6, 1997, a request for snake antiserum for 100 people was sent
from the
Government of Cambodia to the Emergency and Humanitarian Action (EHA),
Western Pacific
Regional Office, WHO. There had been a serious flood in Cambodia and quite
a few snakebite
cases were expected aftermath the flood. However, they could provide only
few types of
monovalent antiserum, and also they had very limited information about the
snakes in
Cambodia.
A request was sent via Internet email from the EHA to a GHDnet member
on Aug.13 and
within only 4 days it was possible to locate specialists of venomous
snakes. By August 18,
the EHA could contact specialists from Colorado State University and Japan
Snake Institute.
They recommended purchasing the antiserum from the Serum Institute of
India, as India
shares many families of snakes with Cambodia and as the Institute might
have stored enough
volume of antiserum. Finally, in Aug.18, antiserum for 100 people was
ordered to the Serum
Institute of India, and was transported to Cambodia by air. On 19,
additional information
about the proper quantity of antiserum was sent from Japan Snake Center to
the EHA.
The Ministry of Health, Cambodia, reported that after the flood in
1996, the total
number of snakebite cases was 13 in the two provinces that were affected
by the flood most.
In 1997, because of the effect of El NINO, Cambodia had been affected by
three times the
number of floods which occurred earlier. Therefore, there was some concern
that further
increase in water level could lead to serious land damage and more
snakebite cases.
However, in the summer of 1997, the number of snakebite cases was
only 5 in the three
provinces. They hoped that the antiserum provided by the WHO in 1997 was
sufficient for the
use in 1998. The Cambodian Bureau of Health emergency management and the
medical supply
center are the main division for distributing and keeping the serum.
We would argue that all countries should establish an Internet based
disaster system
so that the critical information systems are set up before disasters
occur, as a many lives
could be saved, and costs reduced.
Ochi G, MD*, Shirakawa Y, MD, PhD*, Asahi S, MD, PhD**, Toriba M, MD,
PhD***, Akira
Sekikawa, MD, PhD**** and Ronald E. LaPorte, PhD****
* Emergency Department, Ehime University School of Medicine,
The Global Health Disaster Network (GHDNet)
http://apollo.m.ehime-u.ac.jp/GHDNet/
** Western Pacific Regional Office, Emergency and Humanitarian Action, WHO
*** Japan Snake Institute, Japan
**** Dept. of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh
Reference
1) Ochi G, Shirakawa Y, Tanaka M, et al. An Introduction to the Global
Health Disaster
Network (GHDNet) . Japanese Journal of Disaster Medicine 1997; 2: 18-22
Competing interests: No competing interests