Health care is becoming increasingly complex, and with that complexity comes increasing amounts of information and evidence to guide clinical care. Unfortunately, it also produces uncertainty and risk: will the new wonder drug really do what is claimed? Will a particular rare complication ever affect me? Do I really need this treatment? Doctors and other health care providers are no longer in a position where they can reliably "know" everything they need for everyday practice. Consumers are increasingly interested in playing a larger role in managing their health problems. Both need fast easy access to high quality information and the skills to make sense of what they find.

The internet is potentially a very powerful medium for accessing health related information for both practitioners and consumers. However, it can be a confusing place with long fruitless searches, information can be of dubious quality and there always seems to be someone trying to sell you something that they think you need! Of course not all answers are known, and not all of those that are can be found on the internet.

This guide covers information and skills required by both practitioners and consumers to effectively use the internet for accessing and interpreting health related information that is currently freely available via the internet.

The guide assumes that you have basic internet skills, but assumes no other knowledge or skills. If you need help with your internet skills then use Netskills. This free, interactive tutorial takes you from beginner to quite advanced in 5 hours or so.

The guide makes use of existing resources on the web (no point in re-inventing the wheel!) but links them in a coherent journey. Sites were chosen, where possible, using all of the following criteria:

1. the site belongs to an educational, government or other reliable body with no financial interest or services to sell (although even some of the best sites do have advertising - it's inescapable these days!);
2. the site is already heavily used;
3. the site is regularly updated; and
4. the site has free access (although a few subscriber sites are mentioned for completeness).

Don't go through this whole guide step by step. If you do, and you follow all the links, you'll probably spend the rest of your life doing it!

Do focus on why you are using this guide - dip in and out of it as and when you need it.

The basic guide concentrates on the following information and skills:

• How to search the internet.
• Where to search.
• How to identify the reliability of what you have found
• Understanding medical research.

The advanced guide continues where the basic guide finishes and covers:

• Searching medical databases and electronic journals.
• Which databases to use.
• Formulating answerable questions.
• Appraising and applying research articles, review articles and clinical guidelines.

The difficulty in preparing this guide has not been what to include, but rather what to omit! It is hoped that, whilst not completely exhaustive, it does cover all the important areas.

We welcome your feedback on this site, which can be emailed to Peter.Orpin@utas.edu.au.