Internet as a tool for health education of medical personnel Magdalena Czerwinska Department of Economics and Management of Economy Lublin University of Technology

Purpose of the research To discuss the review of the most reliable Polish medical portals designed for doctors and other medical personnel

Main research questions What are the reasons for the existence of medical portals designed for doctors and other medical personnel What are the advantages to be gained using such portals

Introduction Medical services as knowledge-based activities The Internet as a source of health information available to all its users The quality of information that can be found on the Internet HONcode – a certification system of medical web pages

Portals addressed to doctors and medical services: to improve professional skills of medical personnel should provide a reliable source of expert knowledge should be a platform for exchanging experiences should enable maintaining professional contacts with other doctors to allow promote medical specialty

Review of selected portals dedicated to medical staff in Poland The most popular and best rated in terms of reliability portals dedicated to medical staff in Poland are: eskulap.com mp.pl konsylium24.pl MEDtube.pl medicalguidelines.pl

The Eskulap.com Portal one of the largest portals for professionals involved in medicine and health care (nurses, midwives, doctors, dentists, pharmacists, paramedics, students and medical schools staff) in Poland established in 2000 nearly a hundred thousand users using the service is free

What is the offer of The Eskulap.com Portal ? the latest medical information from the country and from abroad the most interesting scientific publications, highlights and comments access to laboratory standards depending on the age and sex of the patient collection of scales to assist in assessing the state of health of the patient

What is the offer of The Eskulap.com Portal ? specialized forum for physicians dedicated to vaccinations or insomnia a full on-line edition of the most popular among Polish doctors Pharmindex drug database along with the unique ability to quickly check interactions between different drugs, prescribed to the same patient

What is the offer of The Eskulap.com Portal ? recommended medical resources from Poland and the world, useful in medical education, scientific research and everyday medical practice practical advice and lawyers tips, who are specialized in problems of running a medical practice, professional and criminal liability of doctors and nurses and the activities of healthcare institutions

What is the offer of The Eskulap.com Portal ? database of conferences, symposia and training multimedia service Esculap.tv with extensive resources of educational films for medical staff

The Eskulap.com Portal Fig. 1 Main page of Eskulap.com portal

Portal Practical Medicine – Mp.pl used by 73% of web-surfing doctors a professional, typically an informative medical website using the service is free of charge

What is the offer of Portal Practical Medicine ? the huge number of scientific articles the results of the latest medical research information on current trainings an archive of audio-visual materials (lectures, training materials, interviews)

What is the offer of Portal Practical Medicine ? a doctors database, containing business cards created by doctors with contact details and information about professional achievements and scientific achievements and interests a database of all medical institutions

Portal Practical Medicine – Mp.pl Fig. 2 Main page of Mp.pl portal

Portal Konsylium24.pl social networking site only for doctors established in 2008 52,000 users Its purpose is to enable doctors to exchange views on the difficult clinical cases and other problems related to doctors occupational Registration and use of the service is free

What is the offer of Portal Konsylium24.pl ? users can read content posted on the site, upload your own posts, post comments, participate in polls, create your own survey two main sections of portal are: clinical problems divided by 72 specializations discussions on selected health issues the results of the latest discoveries in medicine and scientific articles

What is the offer of Portal Konsylium24.pl ? subservices: Kompendium24.pl (including: educational testing, medical consultation, recruitment advertisements for doctors, medical conferences database and notices) GdzieSkierowac24.pl (contact base to professionals recommended by practitioners) DoLekarzy24.pl (social network only for doctors)

Portal Konsylium24.pl Fig. 3 Main page of Konsylium24.pl portal

Portal MEDtube.pl the largest online library of high quality professional medical movies (over 14 000 materials) established in 2011 an innovative sharing medical knowledge web portal based on multimedia content using the website is free

What is the offer of Portal MEDtube.pl ? medical videos, surgical videos, broadcasting live surgery events, photos of medical cases, visualizations and animations, interviews, presentations, webcasts, case-reports and other professional materials in all medical specialties the materials come from physicians, medical societies and universities, as well as their own production of MEDtube

What is the offer of Portal MEDtube.pl ? operates in two languages: the Polish (MEDtube.pl) and the English (MEDtube.net) conducts online medical publisher (MEDtube Tribune), which publishes medical articles, cases and news focused on new technologies and discoveries in Healthcare

Portal MEDtube.pl Fig. 4 Main page of MEDtube.pl portal

Portal Medicalguidelines.pl a website on guidelines for medicine (the first in Poland ) based on the websites of organizations such as the National Institute of Clinical Excellence, National Health and Medical Research Council

What is the offer of Portal Medicalguidelines.pl ? educational and reference database for doctors in Poland medical guidelines are intended to help users in: rapidly acquiring medical data, access to knowledge based on scientific evidence, implement new practices and improve communication in the medical community educational videos and e-learning

Portal Medicalguidelines.pl Fig. 5 Main page of Medicalguidelines.pl Portal

Conclusions The portals which was described in this paper represent only a fraction of professional medical content available on the Internet for different groups of entities - qualified medical staff, but also patients The number of these portals and their popularity, as reflected in the frequency of use by users with content presented there, testify to the high demand for such services

Conclusions Presented in the article characteristics of portals confirm the assumed working hypothesis about big role of the Internet as a source of health information By the development of ICT technology medical staff received a powerful educational tool in the form of the Internet

Conclusions It should be emphasised, that only the high quality of the content posted on the presented portals guarantees their educational functions

Conclusions This has the undoubted advantage of this form of education: its low cost (no charge for the use of portals), fast access to the most current medical knowledge at any time, the possibility of using other people's experiences and exchange of opinions on medical issues

Conclusions A study on the practical aspects of using the websites by the medical staff could become an interesting development considerations Identification of the strengths and weaknesses of portals could be done There is ongoing scientific research on the basis of which the ranking of portals could be created

Thank You for your attention