The percentage of physicians in all specialties using the World Wide Web last year nearly doubled from 1997, going from 20 percent to 37 percent, according to an AMA media summary released last month. " The Internet has proven to be a powerful tool for medical use," said American Medical Association Trustee Richard Corlin, M.D.

Only 4 percent of 1999 respondents with a computer said they did not have access to the Web, down from 22 percent in 1997, according to the AMA. Moreover, 58 percent of physicians without access to the Internet said they planned to obtain access by this month, according to the AMA study.

The AMA conducted a large-scale, random survey of physician members in 1997 to identify patterns of Web use. Last year, the AMA did a follow-up survey in July and August that resulted in 1,084 completed interviews, according to the summary.

The 1999 AMA survey also showed that physicians aged 49 or younger use the Web more (53 percent) than physicians aged 50 and above (40 percent).

The increases in Web use notwithstanding, a sizable percentage of the respondents (58 percent) said they don’t use computers at all, according to the summary.

Bertram Warren, M.D., chair of APA’s Committee on Information Systems, said in an interview, " Psychiatrists who conduct mainly therapy in solo practices are less likely to see the need to use computers than psychiatrists in group practices who prescribe medication on a regular basis. However, most psychiatrists have access to a computer at home or at work. I would estimate that nearly 90 percent of them have e-mail addresses," said Warren.

Sending and receiving e-mail was the top reason physicians said they use the Internet, indicated by 91 percent of respondents. This was followed by obtaining medical information (84 percent) and collecting travel information (80 percent), according to the summary.

Warren commented, " I have seen psychiatrists become converts to using the Web for medical information after they tried our committee’s Web program on computers at APA’s 1999 annual meeting."

Physicians also used the Internet more last year to obtain product information and professional association communication than they did in 1997, according to survey.

" APA members use the Association’s Member2Member e-mail list serve to communicate among themselves all the time. Candidates for APA offices also use list serves for campaign purposes," said Warren.

The AMA survey also found that by 1999, 27 percent of physicians had created their own Web sites to promote their practice or provide patient education information.

Warren pointed out that many psychiatrists already have their own Web sites. " They create them for different purposes including to promote their practice or a particular cause. For example, an APA member recently used his Web site to promote the idea that APA should establish a caucus for members who treat managed care patients, which the Board approved last month," said Warren.