The National Practitioner Data Bank: harmful or helpful in the hands of the consumer?

Abstract

The Internet's powerful ability to quickly disseminate vast amounts of information to so many people has changed every aspect of our lives, including how we "shop" for medical care. For years, patients wanting disciplinary information on their physicians had to write to their state medical board to request it. Since the advent of the World Wide Web, the same information that ten years ago would have taken weeks to track down and obtain is often accessible by entering a few simple computer keystrokes.