Empowering citizens in assessing health related websites: a driving factor for healthcare governance

Alpay, Laurence; Overberg, Regina; Zwetsloot-Schonk, Bertie

doi:10.1504/ijhtm.2007.012103

Cited by 14 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…More than 80% of adults reported using Internet resources to support health care decisions in 2011 [ 1 , 2 ]. Thus, in many instances, a hospital’s home page is the first point of contact for consumers [ 3 , 4 ]. As a result, the website for a hospital or health system has become an important communication channel for marketing to current and potential customers, as well as to visitors accompanying a patient [ 5 - 7 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hospital Website Rankings in the United States: Expanding Benchmarks and Standards for Effective Consumer Engagement

Huerta¹,

Hefner²,

Ford³

et al. 2014

J Med Internet Res

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BackgroundPassage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) increased the roles hospitals and health systems play in care delivery and led to a wave of consolidation of medical groups and hospitals. As such, the traditional patient interaction with an independent medical provider is becoming far less common, replaced by frequent interactions with integrated medical groups and health systems. It is thus increasingly important for these organizations to have an effective social media presence. Moreover, in the age of the informed consumer, patients desire a readily accessible, electronic interface to initiate contact, making a well-designed website and social media strategy critical features of the modern health care organization.ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to assess the Web presence of hospitals and their health systems on five dimensions: accessibility, content, marketing, technology, and usability. In addition, an overall ranking was calculated to identify the top 100 hospital and health system websites.MethodsA total of 2407 unique Web domains covering 2785 hospital facilities or their parent organizations were identified and matched against the 2009 American Hospital Association (AHA) Annual Survey. This is a four-fold improvement in prior research and represents what the authors believe to be a census assessment of the online presence of US hospitals and their health systems. Each of the five dimensions was investigated with an automated content analysis using a suite of tools. Scores on the dimensions are reported on a range from 0 to 10, with a higher score on any given dimension representing better comparative performance. Rankings on each dimension and an average ranking are provided for the top 100 hospitals.ResultsThe mean score on the usability dimension, meant to rate overall website quality, was 5.16 (SD 1.43), with the highest score of 8 shared by only 5 hospitals. Mean scores on other dimensions were between 4.43 (SD 2.19) and 6.49 (SD 0.96). Based on these scores, rank order calculations for the top 100 websites are presented. Additionally, a link to raw data, including AHA ID, is provided to enable researchers and practitioners the ability to further explore relationships to other dynamics in health care.ConclusionsThis census assessment of US hospitals and their health systems provides a clear indication of the state of the sector. While stakeholder engagement is core to most discussions of the role that hospitals must play in relation to communities, management of an online presence has not been recognized as a core competency fundamental to care delivery. Yet, social media management and network engagement are skills that exist at the confluence of marketing and technical prowess. This paper presents performance guidelines evaluated against best-demonstrated practice or independent standards to facilitate improvement of the sector’s use of websites and social media.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hospital Website Rankings in the United States: Expanding Benchmarks and Standards for Effective Consumer Engagement

Huerta¹,

Hefner²,

Ford³

et al. 2014

J Med Internet Res

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“…During our study, our main research question reads: Can a persuasive computer assistant increase the adherence to an online lifestyle diary for overweight adults? Based on previous studies on eHealth services, we expect that participants receiving persuasive feedback from the computer assistant will use the diary more adequately, better fulfill lifestyle goals, be more motivated [2,7], and develop more self-managing knowledge [33]. Also, we expect that active use of the diary will lead to improved self-management outcomes [19], such as optimizing the Body Mass Index (BMI).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An online lifestyle diary with a persuasive computer assistant providing feedback on self-management

Henkemans

Boog

Lindenberg³

et al. 2009

THC

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In accordance with the global trend, in The Netherlands approximately 45% of the population is overweight. Existing studies show that patient self-management can reduce these figures, but medical non-adherence is a persistent problem. eHealth can potentially increase adherence to self-management. Consequently, we designed a persuasive computer assistant and evaluated its influence on self-management, i.e., the use of an online lifestyle diary called DieetInzicht.nl. The assistant is represented by an animated iCat, which shows different facial expressions and provides cooperative feedback following principles from the motivational interviewing method. We conducted a randomized controlled trial with 118 overweight people over a period of four weeks and studied the difference between diary use with and without computer assistant feedback. Results show that the computer assistant contributed to filling in the diary more frequently, reduced the decline in motivation to perform self-management, lowered the (reported) BMI, and improved the ease of use. Furthermore, diary use increased knowledge of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Finally, personal characteristics, i.e., locus of control, vocabulary, computer experience, age, gender, education level and initial BMI, explained the variance in the diary use and its outcome. Of the 118 participants 35 filled in the closing survey, covering motivation, BMI, lifestyle knowledge and ease of use, which implies that the findings based on these results are mainly representative for motivated participants. In general, this study shows that the Dieetinzicht eHealth service, including a personal computer assistant, is likely to support motivated overweight people and lifestyle related diseases to get a better insight in and adhere to their self-management. : O.A.BlansonHenkemans@TUDelft.n. 0928-7329/09/$17.00  2009 -IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved 254 O.A. Blanson Henkemans et al. / Online lifestyle diary with assistant for self-managementhealth care system towards a more independent, self-determining position wherein the emphasis lies on self-management.Self-management consists of activities undertaken by individuals, families, and communities with the intention of preventing disease, limiting illness, and restoring health [27]. It aims at educating and increasing the patient's intrinsic motivation, which in turn can lead to stimulation of medical adherence [31]. Examples of self-management activities are maintaining a healthy diet [17,25] and performing physical activities [10,23]. Strikingly, although people are well informed of the impact of being overweight on their life and from the benefit of self-management, treatment non-adherence is a persistent problem [15,20]. eHealth can potentially stimulate adherence to self-management [1,26,34,42]. Remote care for people at home through Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has multiple benefits, such as lowering costs [18], aging in place [36], motivating the patient [19] developing health literacy [28,33],...

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“…Even seniors who are computer literate may find navigation difficult on a website. They may also have problems in evaluating health information, assessing good quality information and understanding the information retrieved (Alpay et al 2007b) Generally though, it still remains advantageous and could positively complement other forms of information technology in falls prevention especially as many patients are more involved and take an active role in deciding about and planning their care . There is an increased awareness amongst the elderly population that although they may have health problems, they can take action to live healthy.…”

Section: Websitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Use of Information Technology for Falls Detection and Prevention in the Elderly

2014

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This research aims to clarify the arguments in the body of knowledge on IT use in fall prevention among the elderly, synthesize ideas to assist in the delivery of healthcare to prevent falls in older people and further add to the available body of knowledge. An extensive literature search was carried out and the information retrieved from the literature was synthesised into paragraphs using themes to structure the types of information technology used for falls prevention. The different modalities of IT used in falls prevention at the different places of care for each category were explored and inferences were drawn from the structured themes which summarized the major findings. The research found that there is potential ground for a wider use of the forms of IT used in falls prevention in the elderly in various settings and outlined the factors involved in this usage. With further refinements in larger studies, many of these forms of IT would be better explored and acceptance is likely guaranteed provided they are accessible and affordable. The need for IT use in fall prevention in the elderly is unavoidable with the trend in technology and the associated convenience. More work is needed to further define the effects of IT in falls prevention using larger prospective studies that will be more generalizable.

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Empowering citizens in assessing health related websites: a driving factor for healthcare governance

Cited by 14 publications

References 16 publications

Hospital Website Rankings in the United States: Expanding Benchmarks and Standards for Effective Consumer Engagement

Hospital Website Rankings in the United States: Expanding Benchmarks and Standards for Effective Consumer Engagement

An online lifestyle diary with a persuasive computer assistant providing feedback on self-management

Use of Information Technology for Falls Detection and Prevention in the Elderly

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