Internet presence of surgical clinics in Germany. Current data and future prospects

Abstract

The aim of this study was to obtain an overview of the use of the Internet by surgical departments in Germany as a presentation platform and information resource for their patients. After a randomizing a total of 1,760 surgical departments in Germany, 200 were chosen and asked about their Internet use. Most of the questionnaires (81.5%) were received and analyzed; 32.5% of the German surgical departments are represented on the Internet; 81.4% of the clinics without a homepage are planning to have one in the future. The hospitals represent themselves on average on two HTML documents. Approximately a third of the German surgical departments currently give information over the Internet with a wide and heterogeneous spectrum. In the near future approx. 80% of the German surgical departments will have online presence. Therefore, the increasing demand for medical information by the patients will be fulfilled. The professionalism and effectiveness of the home-pages can be increased through registration with many search engines and the use of e-mail.