Internet

zdrowie

źródło informacji

rzetelność

The Internet is gaining in popularity as an interactive tool of information worldwide as well as in Poland. Due to its growing popularity and accessibility it has an impact on social health behaviour patterns. The analysis of scientific research data on the subject resulted in the article which aims at presenting medical professionals’ and patients’ expectations with respect to Internet-based medicine and at specifying their ability to verify unreliable medical information. According to the surveys, a number of people using the Internet is annually and systematically growing. 68.9% of Poles claim to use it every day or almost every day and 18% admit to using it a few times a week. Recently, Internet-based medicine has become an important source of needed information. In the polls, it ranks first as a source of media information. Internet users search for information on health by entering simple key words into well-known search engines and then read selected information. Medical circles emphasize the necessity to introduce and popularize elementary principles evaluating the reliability of medical information, as well as of quality certificates used by editorial staff of medical web-pages.