Microsoft recently released the results of a study it conducted on cyberchondria.  This of course is the condition in which people assume the worse conclusions about what ails them while researching online. 

Cyberchondria is not a new term and much has been speculated about the condition but according to Microsoft, this is the first study to systematically study cyberchondria.  The study analyzed health-related Web searched on popular search engines and a survey of 515 Microsoft employees. 

It seems that many of us treat search engines as an expert that can exercise medical judgement.  Searches of innocuous and common symptoms often lead to further searches of serious conditions.  Also, web search results for common symptoms like chest pain were just as likely to lead people to pages about heart attacks as indigestion, although heart attacks were much less likely.

Some interesting results also emerged from the survey:

 “Three in four survey respondents have at least once interpreted the ranking of Web search results as indicating the likelihood of the illnesses, with more likely diseases appearing higher up on the results page."

 “One in five survey respondents were convinced to seek medical attention based on the review of online medical content.”

o   “only one in four of the respondents that sought medical attention had a medical condition that warranted doing so.”

All in all an interesting study which details some of the user's predispositions.  The authors hope to use the results to improve the search experience for users and try to lower the chance that search results will lead to unfounded escalations.

Download the full study, Cyberchondria: Studies of the Escalation of Medical Concerns in Web Search.

Richard MacManus from ReadWriteWeb recently wrote about his experiences with Health 2.0 tools as a Type 1 Diabetic.  His article, Health 2.0 Through the Eyes of a Diabetic - One Year Later, provides a very good review of some of the web tools available for patients and I highly recommend reading through his article and checking out some of these web apps for yourself.

Some of the tools I found to be most interesting are the iphone apps that allow patients to monitor their blood sugar levels and weight.  Apps for these 3G devices have the potential to greatly empower patients in the tracking and management of their condition.    

It is interesting to note that Richard says he doesn't actually use the web to manage his diabetes as much as he could due to a large part to the fact that many of these tools are not available to people outside of the US.  As a Canadian, I have to agree that other countries are lagging far behind the US in Health 2.0 and eHealth in general.

The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) is the latest to jump into Health 2.0 with last week's launch of its own social networking site for Canadian physicians called Asklepios.    Asklepios joins a growing list of professional networking sites for health care practitioners, including sermo.com, within3.com, and ozmosis.com, just to name a few. 

Named for the Greek god of medicine and healing, the site is exclusive to Canadian physicians, residents and medical students and is bilingual (English and French).  Its features currently include personalized profile pages, access to groups and discussions, messaging, real-time chats, and events. 

The CMA will be doing a presentation on Asklepios at the Medicine 2.0 conference in Toronto on September 4.

It remains to be seen how Canadian physicians will receive Asklepios, as I suspect some of them may already be part of other health care professional networking sites.  As of today, there are only 114 members and 33 comments on Asklepios.  According to its website, the CMA has 67,000 members across the country.

On a related note, the CMA also launched its own health portal back in April called mydoctor.ca, which allows physicians to register their patients with online tools such as asthma tracker, blood pressure tool, weight tracker and personal health record. In addition, the portal provides secure messaging between patients and doctors.  Interestingly, my own family doctor is on mydoctor.ca; however, I am not aware that she’s used any of the available features and, in fact, her profile page hasn’t been updated with her new hours.   

Web 2.0 is the buzzword on everyone’s minds, but how is it changing the game for health care?

The Internet is rapidly evolving from an environment where static pages exist for people to search and read information (a.k.a. Web 1.0) to one where users from all walks of life can create and share content online. 

Patients now have the potential to go beyond just researching health facts on the web to actively sharing their experiences with each other – not only for emotional support but also to benefit from collective intelligence and gain clinical knowledge from each other.  They increasingly have the ability to take greater control and play a larger role in the management of their own health.

Not surprisingly, a recent survey showed that patients are starting to consult Internet-based resources, including social media, more than they consult their physicians.

59% resort to Internet-based resources (including Web sites, search engines, online advertisements, blogs, forums, and social networks) for health- and wellness-related information (versus 55%  who ask their physician)

Source: iCrossing

Physicians themselves are starting to utilize Web 2.0 as well.  Sermo.com is an example of a social networking site exclusively for doctors which enables members to come together to share their knowledge in order to “accelerating the emergence of trends and new insights on medications, devices and treatments.”   

Here is a small sample of the many health-related Web 2.0 resources out there:

Wikis	AskDrWiki, FluWiki, Clinical Informatics Wiki, WiserWiki
Blogs	Kevin M.D., DiabetesMine, Running a Hospital, Clinical Cases and Images
Social Networks	Sermo, Patientslikeme, MyCancerPlace, DailyStrength
Video Sharing	ICYou
Online Forums	Google Health Groups, Revolution Health Groups, HealthyCanada
Podcasts	Johns Hopkins Medicine Podcasts, NIH Podcasts, CDC Travelers Health Podcasts, dLife

It is clear that Web 2.0’s popularity will start to change the way in which patients, physicians and researchers collaborate and learn about illnesses and therapies, and manage patient health. 

Web 2.0 holds great potential for both health care professionals and patients alike, but it remains to be seen how issues surrounding privacy and security, which are especially heightened in the health care space, will be overcome.

Read my full article on Health 2.0.

IT is a significant driver for a safer and more efficient healthcare system in Ireland, funded to the tune of €17bn per year.  In a move to make the system more efficient and to better track patients through the system, the system is beginning to use patient wristbands with barcodes that provide full access to the patients key information (see Taking the pulse, reported on the SiliconRepublic.com).

"In times of financial prudence, the budget for infrastructure such as IT is often cut to the quick in an attempt to rein in costs. Conversely, industry observers say now is the time to spend because IT has been proven to save money and drive efficiencies. Despite past technology projects going very publicly awry, the HSE is proceeding with smaller projects that it hopes will improve patient care and increase efficiencies.

ID technology integrator Zetes is involved in a project for patient wristbands with two-dimensional (data matrix) barcodes. The wristband contains key demographic information that includes the patient’s name, surname, date of birth, sex and hospital number. The information is now electronically transferable for use by a PDA-type device, mobile computer or any electronic interface.

“We did this for a hospital in Roscommon that wanted to improve its phlebotomy practices. It previously had to print labels and it now uses electronic wristbands,” explains Barry Long, sales manager with Zetes. “This has two advantages: electronic transfer of information and the details on the wristband is consistent and the same as on the hospital’s system.” Barcoding is a fundamental building block in the installation of wireless networks in hospitals and many hospitals throughout the country are either putting in or piloting the technology, according to Long."

 

Read the full article Taking the pulse.

According to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only 1 in 10 U.S. physicians in 2005 were using systems that included prescription and diagnostic test orders, test results and physician notes, which are vital to a complete health information network. That number may be in the rise, but it still lags behind demand and the pace of technology.

 

“As a result, the United States—which had a key role in the creation of personal computers, the rise of the consumer Internet, the mapping of the human genome and using technology to cut costs—lags Denmark, the Netherlands and some other industrialized nations when it comes to moving medical records into the digital age, according to the Commonwealth Fund, a healthcare-focused private foundation in New York,” writes Lisa Baertlein with Reuters in U.S. Health IT Lags on eWeek.com

Insurance companies, which have come under fire for cherry picking the healthiest patients or limiting payments to members, make up another sector that stands to benefit from digital information to find the most effective treatments.

 

The United States plans to develop a national network of health information by 2014, and the European Union has called for every member state to create a system of electronic medical records, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers' recent Pharma 2020 report.

 

AND THE WINNER IS ... DENMARK

 

Denmark leads the pack among European and English-speaking countries when it comes to using digital information to deliver health care, according to the Commonwealth Fund.

 

The Danish government provides health care for its citizens and most of their health information is kept in a single system that can be accessed and updated by an individual's primary care doctor and other medical professionals.

 

Anyone who has personally—or through an acquaintance or family member—grappled with a complex or terminal medical condition knows just how difficult it can be to keep track of specialist visits, hospital stays and prescription drugs—and how valuable it is for doctors, patients and family members to have immediate access to complete records during a health crisis.

None of this of course is a surprise. In a June 2006 article, Health IT struggles echo 19th century challenges (Government Health IT), John Pulley writes, “Up to 100,000 Americans die each year from preventable medical errors, according to estimates released by the Institute of Medicine in 2000. Subsequent studies have estimated twice as many such deaths, with medical errors killing more people every year than breast cancer, AIDS or wrecks involving motor vehicles.”

“One in every five of those fatal errors results from a lack of immediate access to patient health care information, said Jodi Daniel, the director of policy and research for the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.”

While the “war on terror” continues to dominate the U.S. administration’s policy, priorities such as Health IT will continue lag and fall further behind European counterparts.