Almost half of physicians report that the World Wide Web has significantly changed the way they practice medicine, according to a study released recently by the American Medical Association (AMA). Of physicians who use the Web, 78 percent say they have increased the frequency and duration of Web use. These finding are from the 2002 AMA Study on Physicians’ Use of the World Wide Web, which interviewed 977 physicians in the U.S.

In this fourth AMA survey of online physicians, 67 percent of physicians said they now go online daily–up 24 percent from 1997. Their average time spent online jumped from 4.3 hours weekly in 1997 to 7.1 hours a week in 2001. They also predicted their time online would jump to an average of 9.6 hours per week during the next six months. One constant unveiled: Only three of 10 physicians using the Internet have a Web site, the same level as two years ago.