Health information in a digital world

Isla Kuhn

Looking at similiar public institutions, and the way they are embracing the latest social networking technologies, can assist in the investigation, planning and implementation of change within one's own organisation. One can assess how networking tools and computing infrastructures can radically improve customer interfaces, and output more relevant, personalised information for the student, or, in looking at the health care profession - the patient.

One of the most important trends in health care in the next decade will be the rise of the “Internet-informed patient”. Already we know that a significant proportion of Internet users use the network to search for health-related information, and that many of them use the information they find online to self-diagnose. We also know that surprisingly few searchers check the reliability of the online sources that they consult.

This raises some important questions for patients, health care professionals and policy-makers.

But is the information that people find online really helping them and their healthcare advisers? Does the availability of online health information increase the likelikood of ‘Cyberchondria’? How should healthcare professionals respond to the Internet-informed patient? To what extent does the Web-savvy patient represent an opportunity to be celebrated rather than a problem to be deprecated by professionals?

Internet-informed patients are also generating a lot of information themselves – by commenting on the care they receive, by sharing their experiences on forums and on social networks. How much influence does/could this have on fellow patients and policy makers?

Knowledge about health service provision and quality is also vital for patients to be able to make informed choices about their care – but this information is often hard to comprehend or difficult to find. Why can’t health-related data be presented in a way that will help and truly inform the patient?

On the 28th March, Arcadia held an Internet-Informed Patient symposium, at Cambridge's Moller Centre, to try and understand how these issues are affecting the health care profession and the users of their services - the patient.