New research published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons shows unsponsored and professional society Web sites provide significantly higher quality information about common elective surgical procedures compared with commercially sponsored Web sites. In addition, the study authors say that providing patients with technical search terms may increase the likelihood of obtaining reliable surgical information on the Web.

With search engine companies establishing online personal health records for their users and surgeons on the brink of making robotic surgery routine, it makes sense to have a remote medical care system that can support nursing staff, care managers and other healthcare workers. Writing in the International Journal of Web and Grid Services from Inderscience Publishers, a Japanese team describes a proposal for such a system.

The Pennsylvania Health Care Quality Alliance, a coalition of Pennsylvania health care providers and insurers, has launched a website (www.phcqa.org) to provide their clients with more essential information about provided health care.

Microsoft Corp. today bolstered its commitment to improving people’s health through software innovation with the announcement of the Microsoft HealthVault Be Well Fund and request for proposals. The $3 million initiative is designed to empower providers with targeted funding to stimulate the research and development of online tools that improve health.

A new study has found that one in twenty breast cancer web pages contained inaccurate information, and that web sites devoted to complementary or alternative medicine were fifteen times more likely to have false information.

Accessing high-quality health information on the Internet may improve breast cancer patients' opinions about their doctors, according to a new study conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Center of Excellence in Cancer Communications Research, funded by the National Cancer Institute.