October 8, 2007–I was interviewed Friday morning by John Gordon, a public radio reporter for “Future Tense” for a segment (podcast also available) airing today about new findings published by the Pew Internet Project. Pew always has made major contributions to our understanding of how consumers use the Internet for health–more than just a series of data points and demographic trends (although those data are valuable too), because Pew delves deeply into areas not studied in some other generic surveys.

Today’s study focused on how people with special health needs use the Internet. I won’t bother reporting on the study, but there are two points I emphasized to the reporter that I believe are particularly noteworthy.

“E-patients with special needs have mostly positive things to say about their online health searches, but they are more likely than others to report frustration as well.”

Those with special needs are more likely than other e-patients to report that their online searches affected treatment decisions, their interactions with their doctors, their ability to cope with their condition, and their dieting and fitness regimen.”

With respect to the latter, there were 2 questions (one about affecting decisions and the other about changing their overall approach to care) that had different responses—and there was a statistically significance difference between special-needs vs. other e-patients—that I found somewhat surprising. What would cause there to be a difference in how the Internet affected their decisions vs. the impact on their overall approach to care.

Both of these findings emphasize the need for information therapy (Ix) for online consumers with special needs even more so than for the general population. Because this population’s health needs are greater, their information needs are greater. That’s why whatever information they can find has such a big impact on their decision making, their clinician-patient communication, ability to cope, and their wellness, yet they have trouble getting the info they need. All of that concern is just magnified by the data on them not checking sources. That’s hardly their fault; there’s just not much decent guidance to go by out there for sifting through Web site info quality (one of the main points of my own dissertation research–for a summary see, The Mysterious Maze of the World Wide Web: What Makes Internet Health Information High Quality? available at The Center for Information Therapy: Whitepapers).

Given all that, the promise of patient-centered HIT applications for people with special needs is enormous–just imagine if this population could have access to just the information they need when and how they need it. By creating ways to maximize the potential of the Internet and other electronic tools with the support, guidance and coaching that clinicians can provide, we can empower this population to improve their own health.

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