Medical practitioners are underrepresented in internet which is often related to the prohibition of advertising for doctors. However, an informative homepage cannot be seen in the same light as advertising. Doctors can provide their patients with a great deal of information about their practice and their areas of specialisation via internet.
Liberalised Advertising Regulations
New advertising regulations became effective for the medical profession in
Hessen on Feb. 1 2003. Doctors are not permitted to advertise their services
however they can offer their patients or potential patients a broad spectrum
of information.
Guidelines for Doctors
In the following description of the guidelines for doctors, the legal department
of the Hessen State Medical Association informs doctors regarding which information
they are permitted to publish. The document is currently available in German
only.
:: Permitted
Presentation by Medical Practitioners in Computer Communication Networks
(German)
The Production of Information for Patients
The production of patient information for internet poses two challenges.
Guidelines for Drafting Medical Information for Non-Medical Persons
Discern is concerned with the criteria required for the publication of high
quality patient information and with tools for the evaluating the quality
of this information.
The
Discern quick guide to creating good quality publications regarding treatment
choices is available here.
Further information is available under http://www.discern.org.uk
or http://www.discern.de
(German)