The Internet and the oral healthcare professionals: potential and challenges of a new era.
The Internet is increasingly used as a means of continuous education for healthcare practitioners. At the same time, a rapidly growing number of patients rely on the Internet for the search and acquisition of healthcare-related information and services. This fact has introduced new challenges for the oral healthcare personnel, which must not only often face the misperceptions of ill-informed patients but also be able to redirect them to quality sources of healthcare-related information. Consequently, there is a great need for the whole oral healthcare team to further understand the potential and dangers of Internet-based information. The present paper aimed to briefly discuss the major implications of Internet use from two distinct points of view: (a) potential and risks of Internet use for lifelong learning and quality assessment of the oral healthcare team and (b) potential and dangers from the Internet as a means of patients' education. (1) generic Internet search; (2) search within healthcare-related databases; and (3) principles quality assessment of information and resources.
Mattheos
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Faculty of Odontology, Malmö University, Malmö, Sweden. nikolaos.mattheos@zmk.unibe.ch
D016206:Databases, Bibliographic; D004498:Education, Dental, Continuing / Q000379:methods*; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006801:Humans; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval; D020407:Internet; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D012196:Review Literature as Topic