Untangling the Web—The impact of Internet use on health care and the physician–patient relationship

Using Twitter™ to drive research impact: A discussion of strategies, opportunities and challenges

“…Through Twitter™, researchers can listen to people in ways which would not be possible with more M a n u s c r i p t 16 traditional forms of communication (Wald et al, 2007;Ferguson, 2013). Therefore, Twitter™ could be said to be a 'research mediator' enabling individuals, groups and organisations to access quality research (Sebba, 2013).…”

The Internet as a Source of Information for De Quervain's Tendinitis

“…After both reading grade level and quality scores were assigned, the websites were grouped according to search term used, search engine used, order of results (whether the website was found in the first 10 websites of a search or [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20], by How would you rate the overall quality the of website in gaining an understanding of the problem? 5-Very good, 4-Good, 3-Fair, 2-Poor, 1-Very poor One point was assigned for each item if the website contained that information.…”

“…The grouping of reading level and subjective score was to see if there was a correlation between each of these and the objective quality of the website. The grouping of order of website results was performed to determine if those websites found on the first page after a search (i.e., websites 1-10) were of higher quality than those from later pages (i.e., websites [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. The top 10 and bottom 10 results from the original searches, from all search terms and search engines, were stratified and compared.…”

“…It has allowed patients to become more aware of the various health conditions that they face and the treatment options available to them. It has also played a role in encouraging increased patient autonomy and shared decision making among patients and physicians [20]. For this change in medical care to be successful however, it is imperative that patients have access to accurate and understandable information.…”

Should Health Care Organizations Use Information Gleaned from Organization-Sponsored Patient Support Groups in Strategic Planning?

“…HCOs can adopt clear-cut policies on how to deal with patients who submit misinformation (to their physician or to online forums). Studies indicate that such situations require an effective communication strategy and often the development of a new set of communication skills for health care professionals [12,13]. It is advisable not to immediately dismiss the information relayed by patients, as patients could put forward potentially useful information [12].…”