Portuguese Family Physicians

Although several international studies exist focusing the role of the Internet on physicians daily practice, there are no study relating ICT in general, and the internet, with GPs human capital (education and training) and profile (scientific versus daily practice). We conduct a national survey to Portuguese GPs and we obtained an unambiguous and strong result - Internet use and perception of its usefulness is intimately related to previous ICT related training and a more scientific led profile. In this context, we argue that GPs who are not enrolled in training activities related directly to ICTs and/or are not enrolled in more formal advanced education (MSc and PhD) tend to fall into a vicious cycle of low use- low perception of the usefulness of the Internet-low ICT related training-low use, becoming thus e-excluded. We advise in these circumstances, that some actions should be undertaken by the Portuguese Health authorities aiming at promoting training actions and awareness for lifelong learning among GPs. Such measures are likely to be important barriers for avoiding GPs e-exclusion, and to enhance the potential of the Internet in the Health Sector.