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eHealth
FAQ:
Frequently Asked Questions
What is
eHealth?
Why is eHealth so important to healthcare?
How does eHealth affect healthcare?
How is healthcare responding to these new
technologies?
What areas of eHealth are particularly relevant
today?
What about the quality of web-based healthcare
information?
How can the Internet be personalized?
What is eHealth?
While other industries have captured the value of
the
Internet early on, the scale and scope of the health
care system presents
perhaps the greatest potential for
Internet-based applications.
eHealth signifies a concerted effort undertaken by some
leaders in healthcare
and hi-tech industries to harness
the benefits available through convergence of
the Internet
and healthcare. Access, cost, quality and portability have
been
concerns in the health care arena. It's evident from
many recent surveys that
both health consumers and
healthcare professionals are frustrated with the maze
of
health care delivery. Some, therefore, are turning to the
Internet for answers and cost effective solutions.
Examples of eHealth products include:
- Health portals or health information sites, which
empower consumers and physicians through
customized education and on-line
community
experience
- Connectivity and communications solutions, which
streamline administrative workflow, thereby
reducing waste and
inefficiencies
- E-commerce, including on-line health insurance
and drug
prescriptions
- As technology evolves, other added Internet
applications might include sophisticated chronic
disease management tools.
The Internet is a critically important emerging tool
available to help healthcare managers worldwide meet
the complicated challenges
confronting health care.
Technology will not displace the expertise and personal
care that only health care practitioners can deliver. Yet
the Internet is an
ideal way to facilitate communication,
educate and streamline the administrative
work that
often takes time away from patients.
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Why is eHealth so important to healthcare?
Because healthcare in the U.S. alone, even
before
factoring in the rest of the world, is a trillion dollar
business and makes up 14% of the gross domestic
product. Some experts believe it represents
one of the
largest business opportunities for the Internet to expand
its reach
into the business and consumer marketplace.
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How does eHealth affect healthcare?
People are taking more responsibility for their own
health. They are using the Internet to find alternative
medications, treatments
and practitioners. The most
common reason people buy PCs is to get on the
Internet.
In the U.S. alone, thirty-three percent of women and 24%
of men use the Internet to get health care information.
More than 60% of
physicians have had patients bring
them information printed from the Internet.
Among
55-year and older Americans, health information is the
number one kind of
information they seek on the Web.
Business, also, is playing an increasingly important role
on the Internet.
Critical medical advisories, new
treatment information, supply and inventory
management
and communications technologies are just a few of the
emerging ways
that the Internet is being used in the
"business" of healthcare.
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How is healthcare responding to these new
technologies?
At this point the healthcare industry has been
slow to
respond. Some are delivering products and services
over theInternet, but for the
most part, other than some
very large sites, few are embracing the existing
technology.
For example, patients are coming in for care armed with
information from the
Internet. Is it accurate and relevant?
Where did it come from? Physicians,
particularly, often
don’t know what to do about this. Sometimes the
information is inaccurate. Sometimes it does not
represent the clinical choices
the physician would make.
It can be threatening to physicians, making them feel
there is a source of information other than their judgment.
This is not
surprising when we realize that, as a group,
physicians are among the least
sophisticated users of
computer and Internet technology.
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What areas of eHealth are particularly
relevant
today?
Some healthcare providers are currently providing
information referral and dissemination and pointers
(links) to places on the web
where patients can get
information physicians and other caregivers know is
accurate.
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What about the quality of web-based healthcare
information?
In general, it is not very consistent. Sometimes patients
judge it simply because it sounds right. The best
information comes from sources
patients know and trust.
This could include sites recommended by physicians,
trusted friends, by their institution or on sites sponsored
by nationally
recognized names like Mayo Clinic or Johns
Hopkins.
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How can the Internet be personalized?
There are any number of technologies for gathering
information about patients--simple things, their age, their
gender, their family
history, their existing health
conditions, if any--and delivering to the
patients the kind
of information that is relevant to those concerns.
Be aware, however, that emerging national guidelines
may have a profound effect
on how healthcare can use
this information. For more information, see HIPAA FAQs
on this website.
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