Professional use of the internet among Saudi Arabian dermatologists: a cross-sectional survey

A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to all 160 dermatologists attending the National Dermatology conference in 2007.A total of 107 questionnaires were completed. Sixty-two percent of respondents had access to the internet in the workplace. The use of the internet to update medical knowledge was reported by 91%.Only 27% had internet access in consultation rooms. The majority of information retrieval occurred outside patient consultation hours (91%).Only 13% reported using the internet during patient consultation. Possible reasons included: lack of access (54%), time pressure (37%), possible interference with the physician-patient relationship (30%), and that use of the internet was too time-consuming (10%). The mean searching time used to solve a clinical problem was 34 ± 3 minutes. Fifty-eight percent used Pubmed; however, 77% of the dermatologists had no training at all in how to use this tool.Professional medical use of the internet is widespread among dermatologists in Saudi Arabia. Providing access to the internet in the workplace and training of dermatologists to perform effective electronic searches are badly needed to improve the professional medical use of internet, which is expected to lead to better delivery of patient care.The practice and science of medicine, including dermatology, has been changed by the internet. Medical information is now easily available to clinicians and patients on the world wide web [1-4], and communication by electronic mail (e-mail) between doctors and between doctors and patients is increasingly important [5,6].The widespread availability of medical information on the internet has had a profound impact on the physician-patient relationship [7]. The internet is clearly a modern vehicle with the potential to improve information dissemination and perhaps change the way health care is delivered [8-13].All this suggests that a predominant paradigm shift is occurring, and the ongoing information explosion can be expecte