title: Guidelines, the Internet, and personal health: insights from the Canadian HEALNet experience.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To summarize the insights gained in collaborative research in a Canadian Network of Centres of Excellence, devoted to the promotion of evidence-based practice, and to relate this experience to Internet support of health promotion and consumer health informatics.
  
  
  METHODS
  A subjective review of insights is undertaken.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Work directed the development of systems incorporating guidelines, care maps, etc., for use by professionals met with limited acceptance. Evidence-based tools for health care consumers are a desirable complement but require radically different content and delivery modes. In addition to evidence-based material offered by professionals, a wide array of Internet-based products and services provided by consumers for consumers emerged and proved a beneficial complement.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The consumer-driven products and services provided via the Internet are a potentially important and beneficial complement of traditional health services. They affect the health consumer-provider roles and require changes in healthcare practices.
authors.affiliation: School of Health Information Science, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada. jmoehr@uvic.ca
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Moehr
mesh_terms: D002170:Canada; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008490:Medical Informatics; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D010358:Patient Participation; D012106:Research