Health information on internet is often unreliable

Open access to biomedical information on the internet and through other easily accessible electronic databases has created new opportunities for doctors and patients, but much of the information is subject to manipulation because the ordinary conventions of context and the reliability of provenance are constantly in question.

That was one of the major themes of “Freedom of Information,” a conference held in New York's Academy of Medicine on 6 and 7 July, sponsored by BioMed Central, which publishes peer reviewed clinical research reports that are available through the internet.

“On the internet anything goes and that's all right,” said George Lundberg, editor of the online medical website Medscape.com and former editor in chief of the journal of the American …