Educating Medical Students to Evaluate the Quality of Health Information on the Web

Google and googling pose an array of challenges for information professionals. The Google search engine deskills information literacy, so that many people can find some information. Yet the great challenge is knowing what we do not know. We cannot put words into Google that we do not know. Therefore the instruments for diagnosis are blunt and brutal. The field of e-health has great possibilities, yet the lack of information literacy undermines the expertise of professionals and creates misinformation and confusion. This chapter analyzes the means of assessing the quality of health information and describes an approach to improve the ability of medical students to navigate through the various health information available and to critically evaluate a research publication. Improving Internet literacy is required not only to meet the standards for medical education but also to prepare future doctors to deal with patients exposed to an information overload.