Patient information and education with modern media: the Spine Society of Europe Patient Line

Abstract

The role of the patient as an active partner in health care, and not just a passive object of diagnostic testing and medical treatment, is widely accepted. Providing information to patients is considered a crucial issue and the central focus in patient educational activities. It is necessary to educate patients on the nature of the outcomes and the benefits and risks of the procedures to involve them in the decision-making process and enable them to achieve fully informed consent. Information materials must contain scientifically reliable information and be presented in a form that is acceptable and useful to patients. Given the mismatch between public beliefs and current evidence, strategies for changing the public perceptions are required. Traditional patient education programmes have to face the potential barriers of storage, access problems and the need to keep content materials up to date. A computer-based resource provides many advantages, including ''just-intime'' availability and a private learning environment. The use of the Internet for patient information needs will continue to expand as Internet access becomes readily available. However, the problem is no longer in finding information, but in assessing the credibility and validity of it. Health Web sites should provide health information that is secure and trustworthy. The large majority of the Web sites providing information related to spinal disorders are of limited and poor quality. Patient Line (PL), a patient information section in the Web site of Eurospine, was born in 2005 to offer patients and the general population the accumulated expertise represented by the members of the society and provide up-to-date information related to spinal disorders. In areas where evidence is scarce, Patient Line provides a real-time opinion of the EuroSpine membership. The published data reflect the pragmatic and the common sense range of treatments offered by the Eurospine membership. The first chapters have been dedicated to sciatica, scoliosis, cervical pain syndromes, low back pain and motion preservation surgery. Since 2008, the information has been available in English, German, French and Spanish. The goal is for Patient Line to become THE European patient information Web site on spinal disorders, providing reliable and updated best practice and evidence-based information where the evidence exists.

Internet use by parents of children attending a dedicated scoliosis outpatient clinic

“…Healthcare has not been immune to this phenomenon with both patients and physicians alike using the internet to their advantage [8]. We first aimed to determine the level of internet use in our cohort of parents of children attending the scoliosis outpatient clinic.…”

“…This represents an opportunity to engage positively with both the pediatric patient and their parent using the internet for greater information provision-a benefit increasingly suggested in the age of the internet [11]. On a European level efforts are already being made to engage patients via the internet to provide the best possible evidence and information available-this includes information specifically on scoliosis [8]. However, we need to be mindful of ensuring that the readability of information provided is suitable for the target audience as often the comprehension level the information is provided at is too high [4].…”

Face-to-face information combined with a booklet versus a booklet alone for treatment of mild low-back pain: a randomized controlled trial

“…Original article Scand J Work Environ Health. 2014;40(2):156-166. doi:10.5271/sjweh.3398 Face-to-face information combined with a booklet versus a booklet alone for treatment of mild low-back pain: a randomized controlled trial by Jarmo Rantonen, MD, 1 Aki Vehtari, DrTech, 2 Jaro Karppinen, MD, PhD,1, 4 Satu Luoto, MD, PhD, MD, PhD, 1 Markku Hupli, MD, PhD, 3 Antti Malmivaara, MD, PhD, 5 Simo Taimela, MD, PhD 6,7 Rantonen J, Vehtari A, Karppinen J, Luoto S, Viikari-Juntura E, Hupli M, Malmivaara A, Taimela S. Face-to-face information combined with a booklet versus a booklet alone for treating mild low-back pain: a randomized controlled trial. Scand J Work Environ Health.…”

“…Patient information is also used to provide reassurance and help the patient to cope with the problem by enhancing self-management of the symptoms (1)(2)(3)(4). Personal information is often reinforced with educational booklets.…”

GEER, the Multidisciplinary Spanish Society for Spine Specialists

“…In addition, GEER has continuously improved its research and educational offer (http://www.geeraquis.org) and linked its website patient area to the Spanish version of the EuroSpine Patient Line. In May 2010, Patient Line was the most frequently visited area of the EuroSpine website, and Spanish documents were the ones most often accessed [8]. Since 2009, GEER has awarded grants to young trainees to complete the EuroSpine Education Program [9].…”