Thuisarts.nl ('HomeDoctor') is a service offered by the NHG (Dutch Association of General Practitioners) for people who are seeking information about health and disease. Thuisarts gets over 150,000 hits a day.
Thuisarts helps the user to understand possible causes of their symptoms, what they can do about them and to decide whether it would be wise to call the GP. GPs use it in the doctor's office to inform patients about their condition and treatment. Thuisarts.nl is based on scientific guidelines from general practitioners, medical specialists and other professional groups.
Most internationals cannot use Thuisarts
Because most internationals lack sufficient command of the Dutch language, they cannot use Thuisarts. There are numerous English-language online health information services, but they follow different guidelines or are often less reliable.
After the summer, the NHG and H4i will start a pilot to demonstrate the benefits of an English version of Thuisarts for internationals and GPs. The results will determine whether a fully multilingual version of Thuisarts is desirable.
Let us know if you would like more information about this pilot.
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