There are currently as many as 20,000 e-health sites online offering general content on health and medical care including hundreds of thousands of individual Web pages dedicated to a broad range of topics. As of May 2000, for example, there were some 614,000 web pages related to diabetes. As a result, consumers with the time and skills to filter through this plethora of material can become as informed about particular diseases as many health professionals. Because, the quality of on-line health content is uneven, and the sale of medical products and services on the Internet is largely not regulated, health providers and consumers must be careful in evaluating whether or not the information, product or service is appropriate. Instead, material may be provided that is not only misleading, but also potentially harmful.
Some sites focus on providing services for the health industry.
Others provide patient health and medical content. Still others sell medical products and services. Many sites serve multiple functions such as providing consumer information, hosting on-line support groups and providing business support services. Consumer Information Services General health and wellness information sites are among the most familiar and widely documented e-health sites. Some sites target a specific population group such as women's health or a specific disease such as cancer.