From the abstract: “While the internet is often
discussed as empowering or endangering patients due to broadening access to
medical and health-related information, little is known about the way patients
actually get informed about medical conditions and how the technology shapes
their practices. This article draws on 40 user observations and 40 qualitative
interviews to explore how users employ the web to obtain knowledge about a
chronic disease in the Austrian context. Following concepts from the field of
Science and Technology Studies (STS) it elaborates how users’ individual
medical preferences and search engines’ mechanisms of pre-filtering information
co-shape online health information practices. This analysis exemplifies that
search engines are no passive intermediaries, but rather actively shape how users
browse through, select and evaluate health information in the context of their
own bodies of knowledge. Accordingly, new skills are required on the part of
users, but also on the part of medical professionals and policy makers. Both
policy makers and doctors are invited to engage with users’ highly individual
search practices and establish more dialogue-oriented and technology-focused
health policy measures, rather than trying to educate users with standardized
quality criteria for websites not responding to users’ online routines and
needs, as will be finally concluded.” Read more