title: Evaluating pharmacy benefit management information on the Internet: purpose, structure, technology, and content.
abstract: A wealth of health information is available on the Internet today. However, little is known about how to evaluate its quality and content. This exploratory analysis examined the Internet sites of 71 pharmacy benefit management firms that were operational in late 1999 by using components of several existing evaluation tools. Variables were used that incorporated interactive marketing strategy, technology features, and content. The principal findings suggest that health information on the Internet can and should be evaluated by users on dimensions such as purpose, structure, technology, and content. However, further work will be required to develop and test criteria.
authors.affiliation: University of California, Berkeley, USA. lucyck@uclink4.berkeley.edu
authors.forename: L C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Kihlstrom
mesh_terms: D000329:Advertising / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003625:Data Collection; D004346:Drug Information Services / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007255:Information Services / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007356:Insurance, Pharmaceutical Services; D020407:Internet / Q000592:standards*; D010594:Pharmacies; D012985:Software Design; D014481:United States; D014584:User-Computer Interface