1. Impact of internet sources on e-patient knowledge
Magdalena Czerwinska
Department of Economics and Management of Economy
Dariusz Czerwinski
Institute of Computer Science
Lublin University of Technology

2. Purpose of the research
To examine the impact of Internet sources on e-patients knowledge
To discuss the review of the most reliable Polish medical portals designed for patients

3. Main research questions
What are the reasons for the existence of medical portals designed for patients
What are the advantages to be gained using such portals

4. Introduction Sources of knowledge about health available for patients
The notion of e-patient
The problem of the assessment of reliability of medical information in the Internet
The HONcode certification

5. Review of selected portals dedicated to patients in Poland
The most popular and best rated in terms of reliability portals dedicated to patients in Poland are:
abczdrowie.pl
zdronet.pl
medonet.pl

6. The AbcZdrowie.pl Portal (eng. ABCHealth)
Poland's largest network of specialist medical services intended for patients
the fastest growing group of health-related websites in the Polish Internet
the portal has the HONcode certificate
using the service is free

7. What is the offer of The AbcZdrowie.pl Portal ?
a wide range of topics - 42 sites dedicated to specific issues and individuals sickness
to collect both patients and physicians interested in the topic
health advice
physicians and medical facilities search engine

8. What is the offer of The AbcZdrowie.pl Portal ?
better health education of Polish Internet users
a platform, where patients looking for help, receive expert advice of professionals, and share their medical history
free mobile application named “abcZdrowie” – connects patient with experts from different fields of medicine

9. The AbcZdrowie.pl Portal
Fig. 1 Main page of AbcZdrowie.pl portal

10. Zdronet.pl service (eng. health network)
comprehensively provides information and helps users make the right decisions on health
to facilitate cooperation between patient and physician
information about possible treatments
using the service is free of charge

11. What is the offer of Zdronet.pl ?
a plenty of medical issues descriptions from different specialties
two databases: one - medicines and the other - health facilities
the Virtual Diagnostician
the portal has the HONcode certificate

12. What is the offer of Zdronet.pl ?
to prepare the patient to talk with doctor and to rise the health awareness
to provide users with comprehensible, current and credible knowledge related to medicine and healthy lifestyle
portal cares about the integrity, objectivity and a high level of posted information

13. Zdronet.pl
Fig. 2 Main page of Zdonet.pl portal

14. Portal Medonet.pl
to provide patients with reliable knowledge of medicine, health and preventive care
content stored on the site are grouped into categories, eg woman, man, senior, child, allowing to quickly find an interesting topic
to complement the knowledge and provide new information in the field of medicine

15. What is the offer of Portal Medonet.pl ?
the current news in the field of medicine in the country and the world
many useful features for people looking for health information:
self-diagnosis
health assistant
health pregnant women assistant
tests, calculators and quizzes

16. What is the offer of Portal Medonet.pl ?
databases: medical institutions, drugs database (encyclopedia), lexicon of diagnostic and imaging tests
information films and fragments of medical programs discussing issues of patients interest

17. Portal Medonet.pl
Fig. 3 Main page of Medonet.pl portal

18. Medicines portals – lepszylek.pl (eng. better medicine)
help in choosing the cheapest and best medicines without a prescription, as also as dietary supplements available in Polish pharmacies
was created under the project "Internet service supporting rational purchase of medicines and dietary supplements"
using the website is free

19. What is the offer of Portal lepszylek.pl ?
drug database with current, approximate prices
database of pharmacies in Poland
articles on following topics: allergies, diabetes, weight loss and ability to cope with stress

20. Portal lepszylek.pl
Fig. 4 Main page of lepszylek.pl portal

21. Portals helping choose a specialist
lekarze-online.tv (eng. doctor online)
rankinglekarzy.pl (eng. doctors rank)
znanylekarz.pl (eng. famous doctor)
elekarze.pl (eng. e-doctors)

22. Lekarze-online.tv and Rankinglekarzy.pl portals
educational portals that enable patients to find a medical specialist and the information about medical procedures
users can communicate with doctors through a discussion forum or directly from selected physicians by e-form
patients can share their experiences and recommend doctors

23. Lekarze-online.tv portal
Fig. 5 Main page of Lekarze-online.tv Portal

24. Rankinglekarzy.pl portal
Fig. 6 Main page of Rankinglekarzy.pl Portal

25. Portal ZnanyLekarz.pl was established in Poland in 2007
a service of reviews about doctors
to facilitate the patients to choose the right specialist
database: almost doctors of all specialties
the possibility medical appointments

26. Portal ZnanyLekarz.pl
Fig. 7 Main page of ZnanyLekarz.pl Portal

27. Elekarze.pl website an extensive database of medical professionals
the possibility to book online visit to the doctor
Doctors can be searched with the following criteria: city, specialization, disease, family name

28. Elekarze.pl website
Fig. 8 Main page of Elekarze.pl Portal

29. Other portals containing medical content
Portal Pogromcymitowmedycznych.pl (eng. medical myth busters)
this website is aimed at overthrowing unjustified views on health
Internetnieleczy.pl site (eng. medical myth busters)
to educate Internet users that they need to verify the information found in the network by specialists

30. Pogromcymitowmedycznych.pl
Fig. 9 Main page of Pogromcymitowmedycznych.pl portal

31. Internetnieleczy.pl
Fig. 10 Main page of Internetnieleczy.pl portal

32. Conclusions
The portals which was described in this paper represent only a fraction of professional medical content available on the Internet and intended for patients
The number of portals for patients and their popularity is reflected in the frequency of use. There is a high demand for this type of services

33. Conclusions
Thanks to the development of ICT technologies patients can benefit from a vast number of information sources
Only the high quality of the content posted on the presented portals ensure their effectiveness

34. Conclusions The patient:
does not cover costs related to access to information (no charge for the use of portals)
has fast access to the most current information at any time
can benefit from the experience of other Internet users and exchange opinions on the medical issues

35. Conclusions
A study on the practical use of the portals described by patients could become an interesting development considerations
Identification of the strengths and weaknesses of portals for patients could be done
The ranking of researched portals could be created

36. Thank You for your attention