First-year medical students' impressions of the Internet.
Physicians are becoming aware of the World Wide Web as a resource for medical information. In spring 1999, first-year students at the University of Louisville's School of Medicine were given an assignment to review and evaluate Internet search engines and directories, medicine-specific search engines and meta lists, and health-related Web sites. Students found that general search engines were easier to learn and use and produced better results than either meta medical sites or medicine-specific search engines. Students were very severe in judging the quality of health-related Web sites. Our students' impressions are compared to those of physicians in similar studies. Solutions to the problems of searching the Web for health information are reviewed.
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Kornhauser Health Sciences Library, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40292, USA.
D001292:Attitude to Computers; D015706:Bibliometrics; D006801:Humans; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval; D020407:Internet / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards*; D007629:Kentucky; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D014584:User-Computer Interface