Internet educated patients, the patient-physician relationship, and cancer screeningYuliya Shneyderman

E-patients•“(E-patients are) …citizens with health

concerns who use the Internet as a health resource, studying up on their own disease (or those of friends and family members), finding better treatment centers and insisting on better care, providing other patients with invaluable medical assistance and support, and increasingly serving as important collaborators and advisors for their clinicians.”

Ferguson et al., (2007) E-Patients: How they can help us heal health care.

Internet health information (IHI)

•Abundant•Used by a large portion of the population

▫Digital divide (by age, gender, education)•Concerns about accuracy/accessibility•Used in conjunction with standard health

care

Patient-physician relationships

•Calls for patient-centered care ▫Autonomy▫Patient as partner

•Positive ratings of relationships => better self-care, better health outcomes

•Participatory relationships particularly important

Cancer Screening

•There are guidelines for screening for:▫Colorectal cancer▫Cervical cancer▫Prostate cancer

•Who follows these guidelines?

Dissertation questions

•Who looks for Internet health information?

•How do physicians respond to Internet health information? Does this affect the patient-physician relationship?

•Do informed patients adhere better to cancer-screening guidelines?

Data/Analysis•Health Information National Trends

Survey, collected by National Cancer Institute

•Nationally representative dataset•Will use structural equation modeling to

answer questions

IHI users or non-users

Physician relationshi

pCancer

screenings

Physician reaction