Surgical departments in the World Wide Web. Contemporary fashion or information network?

An increasing number of surgical departments is creating its own homepage i n the World Wide Web (WWW). We investigated 184 presentations concerning th eir quality in content and technical realization. Our research revealed tha t most presentations regard patients as their main target group in order to meet the patients' demand for information and transparency. However, unive rsities are especially concentrating on scientific development and neglecti ng the patients. Only a few presentations contain means for web-based train ing. In general, technical realization seems to be much better than the con tent itself. As patients tend to appear as customers who will choose the ho spital they feel comfortable with, every clinical department that is a comp etitor should create a communication and information base for their custome rs. Thus, they will be able to keep in touch, present their treatment types and to enable patients to compare a multitude of surgical departments. The usefulness for colleagues or cooperating institutions must be improved. Th e WWW has become an important center of information in surgery.