ABSTRACT
The Internet and the Web represent the most powerful instruments yet created for the creation and dissemination of information. Through the Internet, many of the assumptions about how information is created, distributed and communicated are gradually being broken down. The Internet is capable of providing a powerful distribution infrastructure over which healthcare organizations can move information. Further, the technical innovations associated with the Web provide tools for accessing and publishing that information. Indeed, it is because the Internet and Web are able to meet many of the information needs in healthcare that they have been adopted so rapidly. This contrasts starkly with earlier, and arguably more complex, information technology, which has generated far less enthusiasm within healthcare.
