Dr. Reiser commented that anyone on the Web can give and get information, which means Web users are purveyors of information also. Ms. Sunni Hosemann added that people go to the Web seeking information on therapies they may not get from their doctors or elsewhere. Dr. Sharon Ostwald stated that people also want information on issues such as elder care, nursing home data, and so forth. Ms. Helen Leonard commented that insurance companies have the responsibility to provide health care information to their clients. Dr. Michael Ross suggested that we distinguish between knowledge and information.
Information is facts, whereas knowledge implies a qualitative judgment or interpretation of facts.
A general discussion followed. The logistics of producing such a directory are daunting, however. Our goal must be to determine what our channel of information will provide and develop it accordingly. Regarding the question of quality assurance, Dr. Burks noted that quality is of course the most important thing, but with the quantity of data we're talking about, the methods we've so far reviewed are labor intensive-expert reviews, etc. Dr. Low suggested we need publications standards, as there are for refereed journals.