Introduction

摘要

On a global level, information and communication technologies are converging to increase complex networked technologies to form the basis for a new era in the practice of medicine and the delivery of healthcare. This infrastructure poses an entirely new dimension to the concept of healthcare delivery, based on the inclusion of readily accessible clinical evidence and other information applicable to an emerging model of shared decision-making between patients and providers. While users of web-based information increasingly report their reliance on such information for medical decision-making, the impact of this phenomenon on the global healthcare community has yet to be assessed in detail. Some have argued, for example, that the web may be improperly used as 'substituted clinical judgment' and relatively little attention has been paid to the selective development of methodologies for consumer-centred discussions or to the selective grouping and analysis of debated 'domains of uncertainty' in healthcare.