BACKGROUND: Scientifically based clinical guidelines have become increasingly used to educate physicians and improve quality of care. While individual guidelines are potentially useful, repeated studies have shown that guidelines are ineffective in changing physician behavior. The Internet has evolved as a potentially useful tool for guideline education, dissemination, and implementation because of its open standards and its ability to provide concise, relevant clinical information at the...

BACKGROUND: The Government has invested £7 million (approx. $11.5 million) to connect all Primary Care Practices in Scotland to the National Health Service Intranet (NHSnet). This provides General Practitioners (GPs) and Practice Nurses with access to the Internet and a wealth of healthcare information of varying quality. OBJECTIVE: This study examines Primary Care Staff's use of the Internet, their views on the reliability of healthcare information available via the Internet, and their...

BACKGROUND: A growing number of prescription medicines such as Viagra® are offered and sold directly to consumers on the Internet. Little is known about the structure and "quality" of these "virtual pharmacies" in terms of how responsibly "online-prescriptions" are actually issued. OBJECTIVE: To determine to what extent Viagra is sold on the Internet despite clear contraindications. METHODS: The World Wide Web was searched for companies who offer to issue prescriptions for Viagra...