Elsevier

Social Science & Medicine

Volume 52, Issue 1, January 2001, Pages 155-156
Social Science & Medicine

Short report
Use of the Internet by medical voluntary groups in the UK

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0277-9536(00)00290-2Get rights and content

Abstract

Voluntary organisations and charities established as self-help groups are contributing to the democratisation of health-related information. As part of the Internet revolution in communication, such organisations are developing web sites. This short report surveyed all UK voluntary groups in the field of neurology. Of these, 71% had a web site, while the Internet was also used for research, advertising, fund raising and to host a discussion forum. These findings are discussed in terms of the quality of information available to people using the Internet.

Section snippets

Discussion

This report demonstrates the significance of the Internet as a medium through which medical voluntary groups in the field of neurology communicate, with all the groups either having a web site, or planning to establish one in the near future. The potential for the communication to be active rather than passive, through technologies such as discussion groups, has not been realised to date, with only a small proportion using or planning to use conferencing software to enable members to

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