Internet presence in surgical departments in Germany. Facts and future expectations

Introduction: The aim of this study was to obtain an overview of the use of the Internet by surgical departments in Germany as a presentation platform and information resource for their patients. Methods: After a randomizing a total of 1.760 surgical departments in Germany, 200 were chosen and asked about their Internet use. Results: Most of the questionnaires (81.5 %) wer e received and analyzed; 32.5% of the German surgical departments are repre sented on the Internet; 81.4% of the clinics without a homepage are plannin g to have one in the future. The hospitals represent themselves on average on two HTML documents. Conclusion: Approximately a third of the German surg ical departments currently give information over the Internet with a wide a nd heterogeneous spectrum. In the near future approx. 80% of the German sur gical departments will have online presence. Therefore, the increasing dema nd for medical information by the patients will be fullfilled. The professi onalism and effectiveness of the homepages can be increased through registr ation with many search engines and the use of e-mail.