Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Patients Go Online for Health Data but Afraid To Share What They Know

Zamosky, Lisa. "Patients Go Online for Health Data but Afraid To Share What They Know." iHealthBeat, June 26, 2012.

From the article article: "Access to online health care information is growing, as is patients' interest in taking an active role in their medical care. However, progress toward doctors and patients working together to plan treatment may not be moving quite as fast. Many patients, it seems, avoid asking questions or sharing information they have found online for fear of angering their physicians.  …Among the more common complaints both patients and doctors have about today's medical consultations is that they're short on time. That might account in part for patients' tendency to turn to the Internet.

"Doctors don't have a lot of time to spend with patients anymore and so patients are going online and looking for information," Sabee said.

According to Luks, however, when doctors take an active role in developing an online presence and making evidence-based information widely available to patients online, they not only improve patient care, but they also can improve their own medical practice. " Read more