[Internet presence of surgical clinics in Germany. Current data and future prospects].

Introduction: The aim of this study was to obtain an overview of the use of the Internet by surgical departments in Germany as a presentation platform and information resource for their patients.
Methods: After a randomizing a total of 1,760 surgical departments in Germany, 200 were chosen and asked about their Internet use.
Results: Most of the questionnaires (81.5%) were received and analyzed; 32.5% of the German surgical departments are represented on the Internet; 81.4% of the clinics without a homepage are planning to have one in the future. The hospitals represent themselves on average on two HTML documents.
Conclusion: Approximately a third of the German surgical departments currently give information over the Internet with a wide and heterogeneous spectrum. In the near future approx. 80% of the German surgical departments will have online presence. Therefore, the increasing demand for medical information by the patients will be fulfilled. The professionalism and effectiveness of the home-pages can be increased through registration with many search engines and the use of e-mail.