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Winter 2009/10 | Vol 13 No 2

A view from CAMH

Dr. Kwame McKenzie

When the Internet and social media came onto the scene, bandwidth was an issue. It was difficult to use the Internet as an interactive device when video streamed slowly, speech broke up and you didn’t know whether the delay in getting a response to your wittycomment was because the person you were communicating with hadn’t received the message or had taken offence and cut you off.

But with bandwidth issues now mostly resolved, especially in high-income countries, new concerns have taken over. Some involve ethical and legal questions about how this new interactivity affects clinical work, the focus of this issue of CrossCurrents. Another issue has been quality.

A standard essay question in 8th grade English studies in Toronto is whether you can trust Wikipedia – one of the better policed sites. It’s a common concern for people looking for health information online. Can they trust the website? Is it sponsored by a pharmaceutical company, with all the possible conflicts of interest? Is it developed by an interest group with a particular axe to grind? These questions can be hard to answer. So often, other quality issues dominate decision making: Is the information presented in a way that allows you to identify the facts you need without being overloaded by jargon? Is the website up to date?

Anyone who regularly uses the Internet will have encountered these problems and found ways of dealing with them. For the general public, CAMH has been offering online information and telephone services for years, but we’re realizing that health professionals have the same problem as the general public in accessing good information online. It is in this context that CAMH ’s Policy, Education and Health Promotion department has launched KnowledgeX (http://knowledgex.camh.net), where professionals can find information about mental health and addiction issues and interact with one another. You’ll also find CrossCurrents online at www.camhcrosscurrents.net. Check out the extra features and join in the conversation!

Kwame McKenzie, MD, MRCPSYCH (UK)
Executive Editor, CrossCurrents;
Senior Scientist, Social Equity and Health Research Section, CAMH;
Deputy Director, Schizophrenia Program, CAMH;
Professor of Psychiatry, University of Toronto