الملخص الإنجليزي
This study addresses the status of using the Internet by Faculty of the College of Medicine and Health Science, and Physicians at Sultan Qaboos University Hospital. The aim of the study is to identify the status of using the internet, and the areas of internet that are used by members of the college community, as well as their satisfaction with the quality and quantity of information provided by the internet. The study also attempts to identify the obstacles that may prevent the Faculty from getting use of the Internet due to various variables (gender, place of work, and education degree.(
Ten research questions were formulated to gather data. The descriptive approach was followed to investigate the research questions. The number of the distributed questionnaires to the Faculty of the College of Medicine and Health Science, and Physicians at Sultan Qaboos University Hospital during the academic year 2006/2007. The collected data was analyzed by using appropriate statistical ways such as, frequency and percentages, mean, standard deviations, and Chi-square test. This study indicated many results, and below some of these important results:
- The associations and medical organizations that are the most widely used was the World Health Organization.
- PubMed guide was the most used topic.
- Google was the most used search engine.
- Medline database was the most frequently used by members of the study community.
- The website of Evidence Based Medicine was the most used website by members.
- Lifelong medical education and searching for information relevant to the research topic were the trends of using the Internet by members.
- The new up-dated information was the main motive for using the Internet by the members.
- The Faculty at the College of Medicine and Health Science, and Physicians at Sultan Qaboos University Hospital satisfied about the quality and quantity of information obtained from the internet.
- The slow Internet was the most obstacle that encountered members to use the Internet.
At the end of the research, and by reaching the above mentioned results, a number of recommendations were stated in order to improve the use of the Internet effectively by the Faculty at the College of Medicine and Health Science, and Physicians at Sultan Qaboos University Hospital.
