JP. LEROY, SJ. DARMONI, B.THIRION, JM. DROY, J. LEROY

Rouen University Hospital – Rouen France

Rouen University Hospital (RUH) is one of the first French hospitals to be connected to the Internet via the French national research network RENATER (1500 PCs in December 1998).

In February 1995we established, the first at a French Hospital an Internet web site, (http://www.chu-rouen.fr). It is primarily used to classify the main biomedical resources, in particular the French-speaking sites (http://www.chu-rouen.fr/cismef). These sites, as of November 1998, now total over 4,600 with 50 new sites each week ) which represents more or less 10% of the world medical sites which are mainly located in the USA. This site contains an index per medical specialty and one per disease based on the MeSH thesaurus (Medical Subject Heading from the Medline bibliographic database). A brief description is systematically added.

At the clinical toxicology unit Web site, there is: (a) a list of Web sites in our particular specialty, which is devoted to French-speaking sites [http://www.chu-rouen.fr/ssf/toxfr.html], (e.g. Asitest, bibliographic database on toxicology, Paracelse, information base on human acute poisoning, Theriaque, drug database), and one for English-speaking sites [http://www.chu-rouen.fr/ssm/toxico.html]; (b) one page for each MeSH term, e.g. Carbon Monoxide Poisoning and Mushroom Poisoning ; (c) links to sites in Occupational Medicine, Pharmacy, Chemical and Drugs; (d) a listserv for the French-speaking toxicologists; and (e) Infotox, the electronic full-text Bulletin de la Société de Toxicologie Clinique.

The Rouen Web site also includes a list of clinical guidelines, medical libraries, electronic journals and textbooks, databases, listserv, hospitals and health institutions, universities, and pharmaceutical companies.

This web site is primarily intended for the health professional, although the general public may also have access . There are no HTML documents with restricted access at the Internet Web site. This index is necessary because there is a large amount of information potentially accessible for the health professional; it is often difficult to easily separate the information required for the health professional from the patient information; and above all the absolute requirement in medicine is to know the source and the quality of the information available on the Internet.

In November 1998, over 2,000 different machines have accessed our site each working day (excluding our own). In March 1998, a study from the CESIM (Centre d’Etudes sur le Support de l’Information Médicale) showed that the Web site of the RUH was the most used by French doctors in their private practice.

The Internet improves communication among the health professionals and with the general public, and also improves access to the information.

Nevertheless, most of the medical resources available on the Internet only have a "marketing dimension" (description of the institution), and only a minority have a valid information content. It is quite difficult, especially for students, to evaluate the quality of the medical Web sites, which are not, in a majority of cases, peer-reviewed. In our Web site several criteria are used to assess the quality, such as credibility, content, links, design, and interactivity [http://www.chu-rouen.fr/dsii/publi/critqualv2.html]. The Internet and Intranet Web site also has an editorial board, which has similar functions as its equivalent at any medical journal.

Be careful, don't become too dependent on the Internet!

30/11/98
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