Evaluation by consumers of quality care information on the Internet

The Health Information Technology Institute [HITI] criteria were used to ev aluate ten Internet resources for consumers on quality care. All of the Int ernet resources met the essential HITI criteria. Consumers (n = 33) then ev aluated each document for ease of use, knowledge gained, and value of the i nformation to them. Most of the consumers acquired new 'knowledge on qualit y care and information to assess the quality of their own health care from reading AHRQ's Your Guide to Choosing Quality Health Care, even though it w as not as easy to use as the other documents. Two resources that should be available to all patients from a consumer point of view were AHRQ's Be Info rmed: Questions to Ask Your Doctor Before You Have Surgery and Prescription Medicines and You.