October 6, 2009 
If you don’t follow Susannah Fox‘s research and presentations, you should. She works for the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Here is a recent post about a recent presentation on Patient Choice in Health Information Technology (HIT). Just pulling a few facts from it…
Our surveys find that the internet is increasingly helpful to American adults seeking health information.
- 60% of e-patients (or 42% of all adults) say they or someone they know has been helped by following medical advice or health information found on the internet. That’s an increase from 2006 when 31% of e-patients (25% of all adults) said that.
- 3% of e-patients say they or someone they know has been harmed by following medical advice or health information found on the internet, a number that has remained stable since 2006.
BUT, she also points out…
“There is no evidence that the internet is replacing health professionals, or Dr. Mom, but rather it is enabling a new way to connect to information and resources.”
Enabling Healthy Decisions 
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