Wading through the Web: Improving online health information

What’s the first thing many of us do when our cough won’t go away or our child has a rash? Search online, of course. According to comScore, the traffic to health information sites increased last year, reaching 55.3 million U.S. visitors in the first quarter of 2007 alone. Doctors and others have long worried, however, that patients may consume unhelpful or even misleading information through unvetted websites. (Would the conviction that mercury-preserved childhood vaccines are linked to autism, for example, have thrived without online connectivity?) Today two We Media participants tell us how they hope to see online health information improved for the better. First we hear from Jacqueline Kreinik, a former health care advisor/advocate, now a masters-degree student at The Johns Hopkins University program on Communication in Contemporary Society:

Over the past 10-plus years we have witnessed a seismic shift in health care, from doctors controlling and managing health information for patients to patients themselves having an access to health care information. While this shift is largely a positive one, it has not yet reached its full potential. Many people are overwhelmed by the amount of health care information on the Internet and unsure of how to relate it to their personal/individual concerns.For digital technology and online resources to empower health-care consumers, such information has to be better organized and presented.

In my work as a health care advocate for individual patients, Google, MSN and Yahoo provide only limited access to the detailed information I need about a patient’s health issues. These search engines direct users to websites that have either paid to be at the forefront or have a lot of visitors, yet these sites do not necessarily have the most useful or current information. If I have a patient with Celiac disease, for example, I want my initial search to direct me toward the most current, relevant and trustworthy sources of information.

I am currently working with a group of dedicated health care professionals interested in establishing a clearinghouse of information and resources for populations with special health needs. Video-sharing, podcasting, bookmarking, proprietary social-network blogging, online forums and other technology tools will allow us to create a multi-dimensional approach to talking with, teaching, and listening to the computer-using health care consumers. Patients should be able to talk with people over the Internet, watch educational videos or join a webinar without without having to use the telephone and computer at the same time, since those who still use dial-up connections often have only a single line.

I am coming to We Media Miami because I want to dialogue with the thinkers, leaders and innovators of digital communications technology and explain how health care providers and consumers need information to be organized and presented. I would also love to learn about new ideas in digital communications technology and provide practical feedback on how these new digital technologies will impact the health care industry.

Jessica Mikulski is the program manager for media and public relations at the American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery. She talks about the impact new-media technology has had on her sector:

New media technology and medical trade associations don’t usually go hand in hand. Doctors, by nature, are cautious people and need to have substantive proof that a new tool for communication works well, helps patients, and won’t cause any kind of liability issue.

 

But over the past few years, many associations in the medical community have begun to explore new media through the use of podcasts and blogs. As a communications professional, it is my responsibility to introduce and integrate these technologies in my organization. Despite the continued importance of using traditional media outlets, like print and broadcast, web-based communications have the ability to hit a target audience head-on. These new tools can offer patients and doctors a new avenue for learning and sharing health information. Blogs and podcasts featuring doctors can offer a valuable “physician voice” to an information market crowded with second-hand analysis.

 

 

 

To take these resources to a new level, medical associations could come together to form a general health website where information, blogs, and podcasts from all specialties are posted, much like WebMD, but with information coming “straight from the doctor’s mouth.” Having such a reliable and trusted resource could help patients and their families learn the facts about different conditions and treatments without wading through hundreds of skewed websites.

As a graduate student studying communications, I am learning about so many new tools and resources now available to the public and media-relations professionals. I am so excited to bring back what I have learned through school to better my organization with new ideas, yet I see the critical importance of harness technology’s potential in a manageable way. At We Media Miami, I hope to gain insight from other groups as to how they are using new technology in their own areas of business, and what pitfalls they have encountered on the way. Also, how can the greater health care community fine-tune the way they are currently using these tools to make it safer and more efficient for patients, doctors and legislators to learn about our topics in the way we intended?