E-Health Dot-Coms' Critical Success Factors

2011 ◽  
pp. 1813-1821
Author(s):  
Abrams A. O’Buyonge
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Success Factors ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Venture Capitalists ◽  
Communication Tool ◽  
Critical Success ◽  
Use Of The Internet ◽  
Medical Records System ◽  
The Many

The increasing use of the Internet by consumers gave rise to an information boom to health-care consumers. Not only could the Internet be used as a communication tool to provide information that would allow patients to make informed decisions, but it could also be used to generate revenue for investors. The dot-com boom of the late 1990s exploited this opportunity, targeting the healthcare system, a $1.7 trillion market in the United States alone. Overall, the health-care system is wasteful and costly (Itagaki, Berlin, & Schatz, 2002), and as a result, health-care IT was touted as the magic pill for cutting costs. The Internet boom of the late 1990s saw the emergence of e-health: the delivery of health services and health information through the Internet and Internet-related technologies (Eysenbach, 2001). Leading the many entrepreneurs and venture capitalists who stepped in to seize a piece of the health-care industry cake were WebMD Corp., an online provider of medical information for doctors and consumers in Elmwood Park, New Jersey, and DrKoop.com, an Austin, Texas-born company that later moved to Santa Monica, California, and began doing business as Dr. Koop LifeCare Corp. Dr. C. Everett Koop, the former U.S. surgeon general, had spent over 6 decades in the medical profession. He envisioned the Internet as an opportunity to change the health-care delivery system in order to empower individuals to take charge of their own health care (Musselwhite, 2002). With this vision and his reputation as an advocate for health-care reform, along with the help of two budding entrepreneurs, Don Hackett and John Zacarro, the trio opened a businessto- consumer Internet portal: DrKoop.com. The portal was designed to provide health information to consumers in areas such as chronic illness, food and nutrition, fitness, and medical break- throughs. At the beginning, the Web site was an overwhelming success, receiving a million hits per month after 2 years of operation, and about 4 million unique visitors per month at its peak. The portal included a personal medical-records system that facilitated the cross-referencing of medications for interactions, as well as the storage of medical reports that could then be accessed by both patients and physicians.

scholarly journals Profiles of a Health Information–Seeking Population and the Current Digital Divide: Cross-Sectional Analysis of the 2015-2016 California Health Interview Survey (Preprint)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hena Naz Din ◽  
Corinne McDaniels-Davidson ◽  
Jesse Nodora ◽  
Hala Madanat
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Digital Divide ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Internet Use ◽  
California Health Interview Survey ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Internet Users ◽  
Interview Survey ◽  
Use Of The Internet

BACKGROUND Internet use for health information is important, given the rise of electronic health (eHealth) that integrates technology into health care. Despite the perceived widespread use of the internet, a persistent “digital divide” exists in which many individuals have ready access to the internet and others do not. To date, most published reports have compared characteristics of internet users seeking health information vs nonusers. However, there is little understanding of the differences between internet users seeking health information online and users who do not seek such information online. Understanding these differences could enable targeted outreach for health interventions and promotion of eHealth technologies. OBJECTIVE This study aims to assess population-level characteristics associated with different types of internet use, particularly for seeking online health information. METHODS The 2015-2016 California Health Interview Survey datasets were used for this study. Internet use was classified as never used the internet (Never use), ever used the internet but not to search for health information in the last 12 months (Use not for health), and ever used the internet and have used it to search for health information in the last 12 months (Use for health). Weighted multinomial logistic regression was used to assess sociodemographic and health characteristics associated with types of internet use. Findings are reported as odds ratios (ORs) with 95% CIs. RESULTS Among 42,087 participants (weighted sample of 29,236,426), 19% reported Never Use of the internet, 27.9% reported Use not for health, and 53.1% reported Use for health. Compared to Never Use individuals, Use for health individuals were more likely to be younger (OR: 0.1, 95% CI 0.1-0.2 for ≥60 years vs <60 years), female (OR: 1.6, 95% CI 1.3-1.9 compared to males), and non-Hispanic white (OR: 0.54, 95% CI 0.4-0.7 for Latinos and OR: 0.2, 95% CI 0.2-0.4 for African Americans) and have a higher socioeconomic status (>400% of Federal Poverty Guidelines; OR: 1.3, 95% CI 1.4-2.4). Overall, characteristics for the Use not for health and Use for health groups were similar, except for those with lower levels of education and respondents not having visited a physician in the last year. For these two characteristics, the Use not for health group was more similar to the Never Use group. CONCLUSIONS Our findings indicate that a digital divide characterized by sociodemographic and health information exists across three types of users. Our results are in line with those of previous studies on the divide, specifically with regard to disparities in use and access related to age, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Disparities in online health-seeking behavior may reflect existing disparities in health care access extending into a new era of health technology. These findings support the need for interventions to target internet access and health literacy among Never Use and Use not for health groups.

scholarly journals Health Information Accessed on the Internet: The Development in 5 European Countries

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Per Egil Kummervold ◽  
Rolf Wynn
Keyword(s):  
Health Information ◽  
Major Part ◽  
Information Access ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Northern Europe ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Continuous Growth ◽  
Media Source ◽  
Use Of The Internet ◽  
Near Future

The aim of this study was to summarize and analyse findings from four prior studies on the use of the Internet as a source of health information in five European countries (Norway, Denmark, Germany, Greece, and Portugal). A cross-study comparison of data was performed. All the studies included fit with a trend of a sharp and continuous growth in the use of the Internet for health information access in the major part of the last decade. Importantly, the Internet has become an important mass media source of health information in northern Europe. While the use of the Internet for health information is somewhat less common in the south European countries, its use is also clearly increasing there. We discuss the advantages of cross-study comparisons of data and methodological challenges. As the use of the Internet for health information is likely to peak in some countries in the near future, new population surveys on health information access should focus more on the details of information that is accessed and which sites that are most used and trusted.

scholarly journals Protocol paper for the ‘Harnessing resources from the internet to maximise outcomes from GP consultations (HaRI)’ study: a mixed qualitative methods study

BMJ Open ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (8) ◽  
pp. e024188
Author(s):  
Maureen Seguin ◽  
Laura Hall ◽  
Helen Atherton ◽  
Rebecca Barnes ◽  
Geraldine Leydon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Information ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Online Health Information ◽  
Online Information ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Patient Questionnaires ◽  
Ethical Approval ◽  
Use Of The Internet ◽  
Questionnaire Studies

IntroductionMany patients now turn to the internet as a resource for healthcare information and advice. However, patients’ use of the internet to manage their health has been positioned as a potential source of strain on the doctor–patient relationship in primary care. The current evidence about what happens when internet-derived health information is introduced during consultations has relied on qualitative data derived from interview or questionnaire studies. The ‘Harnessing resources from the internet to maximise outcomes from GP consultations (HaRI)’ study combines questionnaire, interview and video-recorded consultation data to address this issue more fully.Methods and analysisThree data collection methods are employed: preconsultation patient questionnaires, video-recorded consultations between general practitioners (GP) and patients, and semistructured interviews with GPs and patients. We seek to recruit 10 GPs practising in Southeast England. We aim to collect up to 30 patient questionnaires and video-recorded consultations per GP, yielding up to 300. Up to 30 patients (approximately three per participating GP) will be selected for interviews sampled for a wide range of sociodemographic characteristics, and a variety of ways the use of, or information from, the internet was present or absent during their consultation. We will interview all 10 participating GPs about their views of online health information, reflecting on their own usage of online information during consultations and their patients’ references to online health information. Descriptive, conversation and thematic analysis will be used respectively for the patient questionnaires, video-recorded consultations and interviews.Ethics and disseminationEthical approval has been granted by the London–Camden & Kings Cross Research Ethics Committee. Alongside journal publications, dissemination activities include the creation of a toolkit to be shared with patients and doctors, to guide discussions of material from the internet in consultations.

Sex Differences in the Use of the Internet as a Source of Health Information Among Adolescents

2010 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaime Jiménez-Pernett ◽  
Antonio Olry de Labry-Lima ◽  
Jose Francisco García-Gutiérrez ◽  
Maria del Carmen Salcedo-Sánchez ◽  
Clara Bermúdez-Tamayo
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Health Information ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Use Of The Internet
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