Cyberchondriacs

According to a new Harris Poll of over 1000 adults, the numbers of people going online for health information (cyberchondriacs, eHealth Consumers) continues to increase. In 1998 just over 50 million American adults had ever gone online to look for health information. In the new poll, the number of Cyberchondriacs has jumped to 175 million while the frequency of usage has also increased. Fully 32% of all adults who are online say they look for health information "often," compared to 22% last year. In addition the proportion of those who are online and have ever used the Internet to look for health information has surged to 88% this year, the highest number ever. Over 80% of all eHealth consumers have looked for health information online in the last month while 17% have gone online to look for health information ten or more times in the last month. Most eHelath consumers are satisfied with what they find. Only 9% report that they were somewhat (6%) or very (3%) unsuccessful at finding what they needed. And only 8% believe that the information they found was unreliable. These findings show that, with every passing year, more and more people are using the Internet to look for health information and that the overwhelming majority of these Cyberchondriacs are finding what they want. This has potentially significant implications for providers and health systems who can only communicate or interact with patients, caregivers and potential patietns using traditional print or in person means. In a bid to try to respond to this growing consumer demand, the Mayo Clinic--with its 60,000 followers on Twitter, its medical provider channel on YouTube and its several successful blogs--is launching a Center for Social Media to "accelerate effective application of social media tools" within its own facilities, as well as to help other facilities in their efforts to connect patients and doctors online. Lee Aase, manager of syndications and social media at Mayo, told the Wall Street Journal Health Blog that "There is immense interest from clinical departments--they want to be able to harness these tools to do their business." Although Mayo will charge other hospitals for consulting and giving out advice, the real focus is looking for ways to increase the use of social media throughout the practice at Mayo…To provide in-depth information for patients in a much more comprehensive way, and to create connections between researchers, physicians and staff." While clearly a step in the right direction, there appears to be no goal of improving patietn engagement and or empowerment. While it is still early, I sincerely hope Mayo and other leading health systems will not only embrace these ideas for thier potential to transfer information or improve the bottom line, but also to do the right thing.