Utility of a thematic network in primary health care: a controlled interventional study in a rural area

In order to study the effects of a thematic network such as UniNet on primary care medicine in a rural area, we designed an interventional study that included a control group. The measurements included the number of patient displacements due to disease, number of patient hospital stays and the number of prescriptions of drugs of low therapeutic utility and generic drug prescriptions by doctors. These data were analysed and compared with those of the control center.Our study showed positive changes in medical practice, reflected in the improvement of the evaluated parameters in the rural health area where the interventional study was carried out, compared with the control area. We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of UniNet as a potential medium to improve the quality of medical care in rural areas.The rural doctors had an effective, useful, user-friendly and cheap source of medical information that may have contributed to the improvement observed in the medical quality indices.The Internet has tremendous potential for the delivery of instructional materials, allowing collaboration among a virtual community of users (VCU). The future success of the Internet in medicine, among other areas, will depend on their ability to enable physicians to participate in continuous medical education at a time and location convenient for them, along with useful communication. Functions such as electronic mail, chat rooms, mailing lists and computer conferencing enable physicians to establish and maintain communication and collaboration with colleagues investigating the same subjects. This encourages creation of virtual networks, such as UniNet, that allow physicians to share experiences and learn from one another [1,2].The UniNet project (University Network of Thematic Resources for Virtual User Communities: http://www.uninet.edu webcite) is the first real pilot experience that proposes integrated virtual thematic services for a VCU [3]. A VCU is a group of Internet users who shar