Online resources in pediatrics

Since it was commissioned by the US government in the 1960s as a communication network, the Internet has grown and is dominating our lives. Although the use of the Internet is difficult to track, several billion people use the World Wide Web through private, academic, and commercial computers (servers).¹

The use of the Internet and the vast information available on the network for medical purposes has exploded over the past several years. In an Ontario study from 2006, 56% of parents in a pediatric emergency department waiting room reported having searched the Internet for health-related information, and 8.5% of those had searched immediately preceding their visit.² In a 2012 survey from an American emergency department with a predominantly minority and economically disadvantaged population, 98.9% of participants reported having Internet access.³

The effect of the Internet on health perception and action by individuals is substantial. Pew Internet Project from the Pew Research Center in Washington, DC, is documenting trends in the use of online platforms for health care. It reported that, as of 2013, 35% of US adults said that they had gone online at one time or another specifically to try to figure out what medical condition they or someone else might have.⁴ Half (46%) of those interviewed reported the information found online led them to think they needed the attention of a medical professional. As many as 41% of respondents said a medical professional confirmed their diagnosis, 35% said they did not visit a clinician to get a professional opinion, and 18% said they consulted a medical professional and that the clinician either did not agree or offered a different opinion about the condition.⁴

Among caregivers to others such as children and older individuals (about 40% of the population), engagement and pursuit of health information online is even higher than for the population in general.⁵

Investigators from London, England, asked parents in outpatient clinics to complete questionnaires regarding Internet use to find information on their children’s condition (75% of whom reported using the Google search engine⁵) and found that the Internet was a useful tool in teaching parents about their children’s health. They suggested that the best way to ensure that parents had access to high-quality and accurate information about their children’s condition was for health care providers to serve as the source.⁶

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