Doctor in the house: the Internet as a source of lay health knowledge and the challenge to expertise

Hardey, Michael

doi:10.1111/1467-9566.00185

Cited by 430 publications

(354 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…The internet is changing the balance of knowledge between healthcare professionals and the public, empowering patients to become more involved in healthcare decision-making and contributing to the deprofessionalization of medicine 23 . The professional power of medicine is being challenged by the public availability of specialist knowledge, and by improved access to information on alternative approaches to healthcare, healthcare performance statistics, and consumer rights.…”

Section: Shifting the Balance Of Powermentioning

confidence: 99%

The Doctor, The Patient and the World-Wide Web: How the Internet is Changing Healthcare

2003

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To understand individual use of the internet and its impact on individuals, communities and societies is a challenge that is only beginning to be addressed. There are more than 580 million internet users world wide 1 , and over 16 million active users of the world-wide web in the UK 2 . This is more than the estimated number of UK smokers yet little has been done to assess the potential health impact of the internet. New developments will lead to further growth in internet usage, and this medium is increasingly being employed for health information and healthcare delivery. Clinicians need to understand the possibilities of this technology, and to be aware of potential threats to health. THE INTERNET AS A RESOURCE FOR HEALTH INFORMATIONOne of the main uses of the internet is as an encyclopaedic information resource. Surveys consistently show that 60-80% of world-wide-web users have used it to obtain health information 3,4 . The internet has the potential to educate and empower the health consumer, by providing information on health and health services and supporting self-help and patient choice. The 'expert patient' can only become expert if he or she can access and use information, and the internet can support the increasing role of consumers in their healthcare 5 . Two-thirds of those using the internet to find health information claim it has some impact on their healthcare decisions 3 . Consumers value the anonymity, convenience and quantity of information 6 .Many concerns have been raised about the quality of online consumer health information, and the possibility that poor information has detrimental effects on health. A systematic review of 79 studies investigating the quality of online health information revealed that the methodology and rigour of these studies varies widely, as do the findings 7 . The information is often incomplete and sometimes inaccurate, although good quality material can be found. While consumers state that they pay heed to the credibility of internet sites, in practice little evaluation is carried out and users seldom remember the sites from which they retrieved information 8 . The quality of internet information needs to be examined in the wider context of imperfect health information generally 9 , and there is little reason to view the internet as radically different from other information sources 10 . While there have been isolated case reports of individuals coming to harm from information on the internet, there is no systematic evidence that more harm arises from this medium than from others 11 . DAERI (the Database of Adverse Events Related to the Internet) has been established at the University of Heidelberg to monitor this area [www.medcertain.org/daeri/]. Perhaps the difference that the internet is making to consumer health information is one of quantity rather than one of quality. The quality of information has always varied; the internet has simply increased the quantity and the ease of access. Education of consumers or content producers may help reduce the spread of poor...

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Section: Shifting the Balance Of Powermentioning

confidence: 99%

The Doctor, The Patient and the World-Wide Web: How the Internet is Changing Healthcare

2003

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“…Celebratory accounts also claimed that the Internet would disrupt the paternalistic, professionalised hierarchies of traditional healthcare through the growth of lay expertise (Nettleton et al, 2005). Hardey (1999Hardey ( , 2001, for instance, argued that public participation on the web would mean that medical discourses would no longer be the preserve of medical professionals and that alternative representations of health and illness based on patient experience would be able to emerge. Likewise, Fox and Ward (2006) discern a range of 'health identities' in online health communities that variously align with, appropriate and contest expert understandings of the body and medical technologies, suggesting the web is indeed a context in which medically unorthodox health discourses can flourish.…”

Section: The Internet and Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

The many faces of diabetes: A critical multimodal analysis of diabetes pages on Facebook

Hunt

2015

Language & Communication

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“…estudos apontam-na como um instrumento especial para obtenção de informação/conhecimentos e de capacitação, tanto individual, quanto comunitária (HaRdeY, 1999;HaRdeY, 2001;eYsenBaCH et al, 2001;BenIGeRI et al, 2003;GInMan et al, 2003;KoRP, 2004;ZIeBland, 2004a;GRIeRson et al, 2006). de fato, a internet é a mais completa e complexa fonte de informações na atualidade.…”

Section: A Internet Como Recursounclassified

Internet na promoção da saúde: um instrumento para o desenvolvimento de habilidades pessoais e sociais

Garbin¹,

Guilam²,

Neto³

2012

Physis

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O desenvolvimento de habilidades pessoais e sociais, no sentido da aquisição de maior controle e maior poder de decisão (Empowerment), é considerado estratégia de fundamental importância na promoção da saúde. O acesso à informação é uma das bases para tal. Muito vem sendo dito e escrito sobre o imenso potencial da internet, estudos apontam-na como um instrumento especial para obtenção de informação e de capacitação, tanto individual, quanto comunitária. Este texto se apoia na literatura científica nacional e internacional sobre promoção da saúde, informação e saúde na internet e divisão/exclusão digital, com o objetivo de discutir a possibilidade de utilização da rede como recurso em projetos voltados para a promoção da saúde, apontando pontos positivos e possíveis barreiras, com destaque para a questão da divisão/exclusão digital de boa parte da população brasileira. Os autores consideram que a internet pode vir a ser uma grande aliada na construção de projetos de promoção da saúde. No entanto, no desenvolvimento desses projetos, é fundamental considerar os potenciais riscos e compreender que as estratégias e programas na área da promoção da saúde precisam se adaptar às necessidades e possibilidades de cada local e levar em conta as diferenças sociais, culturais e econômicas.

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Doctor in the house: the Internet as a source of lay health knowledge and the challenge to expertise

Cited by 430 publications

References 31 publications

The Doctor, The Patient and the World-Wide Web: How the Internet is Changing Healthcare

The Doctor, The Patient and the World-Wide Web: How the Internet is Changing Healthcare

The many faces of diabetes: A critical multimodal analysis of diabetes pages on Facebook

Internet na promoção da saúde: um instrumento para o desenvolvimento de habilidades pessoais e sociais

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