Internet Medical and Health Information
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Internet Medical and Health Information
General Information
NEWS:
Americans lacking in health literacy “Just 12 percent of American adults are health literate at a level that allows them to manage their care, the latest News and Numbers statement from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) showed.”
Does general practice Google? (Aust Fam Physician. 2008)
Experts: Internet Helpful, But Not a Replacement for Doctors “ … Internet helps consumers take more control of their health care. "I think it makes people feel better about what the doctor says," she said, adding, "It's like getting another opinion or more information." ”
For Nutrition Info, Moms Like The Web Best “A Web site is a better source of information on nutrition than a video game or printed pamphlet, according to a study of low-income mothers reported in the January issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior.”
Hispanics' use of Internet health information: an exploratory study. (J Med Libr Assoc. 2008) “Conclusion: This study provides further evidence of differences in Internet health information seeking among Hispanics and non-Hispanic whites. Cultural discordance may be a possible explanation for Hispanics' view that the Internet negatively impacts physician-patient relationships. Strategies to increase Hispanics' access to Internet health information will likely help them become empowered and educated consumers, potentially having a favorable impact on health outcomes.”
Logging On for a Second (or Third) Opinion “Reliance on the Internet is so prevalent, said the report’s author, Susannah Fox, the associate director at Pew, that “Google is the de facto second opinion” for patients seeking further information after a diagnosis. But paging Dr. Google can lead patients to miss a rich lode of online resources that may not yield to a simple search. Sometimes just adding a word makes all the difference. Searching for the name of a certain cancer will bring up the Wikipedia entry and several information sites from major hospitals, drug companies and other providers. Add the word “community” to that search, Ms. Fox said, and “it’s like falling into an alternate universe,” filled with sites that connect patients. As a result, said Dr. Ted Eytan, medical director for delivery systems operations improvement at the Permanente Federation, “patients aren’t learning from Web sites — they’re learning from each other.” The shift is nothing less than “the democratization of health care,” he went on, adding, “Now you can become a national expert in your bedroom.” These expanded capabilities allow people to share information easily, upending the top-down path of information between doctors and patients. Today, said Clay Shirky, an expert in the evolving online world, patients are “full-fledged actors in the system.” “
Some Breast Cancer Sites Include Inaccurate Data, Study Finds “Researchers at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center examined 343 Web pages and found that one in 20 had inaccuracies. Web sites focused on complementary and alternative medicine were 15 times more likely to contain false or misleading information, according to the researchers.”
The Internet gives patients control over their doctors “There's been a revolution in how we relate to doctors. Patients are no longer passive subjects but health care consumers. Doctors have been demoted from healers to "providers." I have one friend who didn't like the specialist assigned to a family member, so, as he put it, he "fired" the doctor (by insisting the hospital find another one). … In the Internet age, ordinary people can inform themselves about virtually any health issue. Of course, a bank manager or high school teacher who is diagnosed with colon cancer isn't going to become an expert on the disease overnight, but he or she could learn enough, in short order, to ask the surgeon useful questions. If I were diagnosed with cancer on a Friday, you can bet that by Monday I'd know what my options were and the risks associated with them; what new surgical procedures were being developed; what drug trials were taking place, and where; what institutions had the best reputations for treating the illness. In the old days, civilians did not have easy access to such information. The spread of health literacy has eroded the power imbalance in the patient-doctor relationship.“
Unsponsored websites give best surgery info “If you're searching the Internet for surgery information, you may want to stick with sites run by professional medical groups and other sources free of commercial sponsors, a new study suggests. In a study that examined the quality of various surgery-related websites, researchers found that unsponsored sites generally gave more reliable information than sponsored sites did. When it came to the specific sources, sites run by professional medical groups got the highest marks, followed by government-run sites. The findings, published in the Journal of the American College of Surgery, underscore the need for consumers to consider the source when looking for online medical information. "Empowering patients with a trusted source of information will lead to better informed patients and, in turn, improved expectations of surgery outcomes," senior researcher Dr. Clifford Ko, a professor of surgery at the University of California, Los Angeles, said in a statement.“
ARTICLES:
JOURNAL ARTICLES:
Commonly cited website quality criteria are not effective at identifying inaccurate online information about breast cancer. (Cancer. 2008) “CONCLUSIONS: Most breast cancer information that consumers are likely to encounter online is accurate. However, commonly cited quality criteria do not identify inaccurate information. Webpages that contain information about CAM are relatively likely to contain inaccurate statements. Consumers searching for health information online should still consult a clinician before taking action.”
Examining the medical blogosphere: an online survey of medical bloggers. (J Med Internet Res. 2008)
Patients' use of the Internet for health related matters: a study of Internet usage in 2000 and 2006. (Health Informatics J. 2008)
Quality of Chronic Pain Websites (Pain Medicine 2008) “Patients with access to the Internet identified the five most common keywords they used to look up information: pain, chronic pain, back pain, arthritis, and fibromyalgia. … The overall quality of this group of Websites is rather poor, although there were several excellent sites. Websites located on the main search page had a significantly higher score than those in the sponsored section, and Websites based on standards had a significantly higher score than those that were not.”
Readability assessment of internet-based consumer health information. (Respir Care. 2008)
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