Who provides physicians with advice over the internet? A study of a pediatric subspecialty discussion group.

Internet-based bulletin boards have become one method by which physicians access patient management advice from colleagues. The reliability of this advice has never been examined. "PEDNEPH," a bulletin board/discussion group for pediatric nephrologists was studied over a 6-month period. One hundred thirteen responses were provided to 50 questions by 56 respondents. Thirty-one (27%) of these 113 responses were provided by respondents with a recent peer-reviewed publication pertinent to the question posted. The 8 most frequent providers of advice on this bulletin board included only 3 with current board certification in pediatric nephrology. These individuals had a wide range of citation frequencies; the most frequent provider of information had no indexed publications or citations. Participation as a respondent in this bulletin board does not ensure that an individual has formal qualification.