Health Informatics Group

The Health Informatics Group (HIG) forms part of the Health Promotion Research Unit in the Department of Public Health and Policy, and produces validated, evidence-base health information delivered via the Internet. The HIG works in close collaboration with a similar HIG at St John's Medical College, Bangalore. The Group has an on-going programme of building capacity at St John's Medical College, by supporting visiting Bangalore research fellows, who join the staff of LSHTM for six months, working on the project and attending training courses.

The work of the Group, including the visiting research fellows, is funded by TWA Medic Info. This is a Dutch company that provides company web sites, including those of health insurance companies, with interactive information on diseases and general health topics. At present they provide information to seven web sites, reaching over 30% of the Dutch population, as well as call centres where the information is tailored to suit the customer in question. They are the only licensed user of 'TAS' in the Netherlands, a British triage telephone assistance system. The information on both the web sites and from the call centres also provides assistance for Dutch GPs, during out of office hours and where there is a shortage of GPs.

People

Joanna Peden, Research Fellow and Manager of HIG
joanna.peden@lshtm.ac.uk

Rosie Meade, Research Fellow
rosemary.meade@lshtm.ac.uk

Taral Shah, Visiting Research Fellow, Bangalore, India
taral.shah@lshtm.ac.uk

Research

Quality of diet-related information available over the Internet. Rosie Meade & Joanna Peden

Information is freely available on the Internet regarding nutrition and health. To evaluate the accuracy, relevance, and accessibility of web-based nutritional information, two studies have been completed which systematically evaluated the quality of web based dietary recommendations regarding coronary heart disease and food allergies. Two search engines were used (Google and Altavista) and the ability of the search engines to identify good quality web sites was compared.

The results for the CHD study were as follows:

• Only 7 sites were retrieved by both search engines
• Overall quality low for content and aesthetics
• Professional sites had best content
• Significant difference in content quality across professional, organisation and commercial sites
• No difference in quality between Google and Altavista

  Systematic review of the literature concerning Internet access in the UK. Rosie Meade

Questions to be addressed include: