This document discusses consumer demand for health information and how technology can help meet those needs. It explores health literacy and eHealth initiatives to promote access to information. Approaches by health organizations to provide education include patient portals, social media, websites and mobile apps. Challenges include the digital divide and ensuring information is understandable. Future directions may include more audio/video and personalized behavior change tools to improve disease management.

1. Chapter 17
Supporting
Consumer
Information
and Education
Needs

2. Objectives
• Define health literacy and eHealth.
• Explore various technology-based approaches to
consumer health education.
• Identify barriers to us of technology and issues
associated with health-related consumer
education.
• Imagine future approaches to technology-
supported consumer education.

3. Introduction
• The challenge for consumers and health care
professionals alike is the proliferation of
information on the Internet and the need to learn
how to recognize when information is accurate
and useful for the situation at hand.
• We will explore consumer information and
education needs and how technology may help to
meet those needs, and at the same time create
ever increasing demands for health related
information.

4. Consumer Demand for
Information
• Consumer empowerment: People taking control
of their health and seeking their own information.
• The Pew Internet and American Life Project
survey report of 2013 indicates that 8 in 10 of
Americans who are online have searched for
health information.
• 69% of Internet searches are related to a specific
disease; weight, diet and exercise (60%); blood
parameters or sleep patterns (33%).

5. Consumer Demand for
Information
• Pew survey does not reflect the health
information needs or demands of those who are
not online.
– The digital divide is the term used to describe the gap
between those who have and those who do not have
access to online information.
– Grey Gap - A term used to reflect the age disparities in
computer connectivity; there are fewer persons over
age 65 who use computer technology than those in
younger age groups.

6. Consumer Demand for
Information
• Missen and Cook (2007), discuss the potential
impact that technology based health information
dissemination can have on the know-do gap in
developing countries.
– The Internet connections in developing countries are widely
scattered and may not be efficient/sufficient for viewing health
care information.
– The know-do gap reflects the fact that solutions to global health
problems exist but are not implemented in a timely fashion
because of the lack of access to important health information.

7. Health Literacy and EHealth
Initiatives
• The goal of health literacy for all is one that is widely
embraced in many sectors of health care, and a major
goal of Healthy People 2010 and continued in the health
communication and health information technology
objective of Healthy People 2020 .
• Those of us who have been practicing for some time
recognize that informed patients have better outcomes
and pay more attention to their overall health and
changes in their health than those who are poorly
informed.

8. Health Literacy and EHealth
Initiatives
• “Health Literacy is defined in the Institute of Medicine
report Health Literacy: A Prescription to End Confusion as
“The degree to which individuals have the capacity to
obtain, process, and understand basic health information
and services needed to make appropriate health
decisions’” (para. 2).
• The eHealth Initiative (eHI) was developed to address the
growing need for managing health information and to
promote technology as a means of improving health
information exchange, health literacy and health care
delivery.

9. Health Care Organization
Approaches to Education
• One approach is to have patient education
information stored electronically so that changes
can be made as needed or information can be
better tailored to the specific patient situation
and then printed out and reviewed with the
patient.
• Many HCO’s sponsor health promotion education
classes as a way of marketing their facilities and
showcasing some of their expert practitioners.

10. Health Care Organization
Approaches to Education
• HCO’s are now also taking advantage of the fact
that patients and families are captive audiences in
waiting rooms and promote education via
pamphlet distribution, health promotion
programs broadcast on TV, and health
information kiosks.
• One caution, however, is that just because the
information is made available does not mean that
people will participate or that they will
understand what they have experienced.

11. HCOs Patient Education
• Secure Patient Portals—allow patients to
access their EHRs to track lab results and
view records
• Provide opportunities for peer-to-peer
support for people with similar diagnoses
• Increasing use of Social Media to engage
patients See SM toolkit--CDC Social Media
Tool Kit

12. Dynamic Web Sites of
Organizations
• Most offer physician search capabilities, e-
newsletters, and call-center tie-ins.
• Must be a sincere commitment to keeping
information current and easily accessible.
• Web designers must pay particular
attention to the aesthetics of the site, the
ease of use, and the literacy level of those
in the intended audience.

13. Promoting Health Literacy in
School Aged Children
• Promoting health literacy in school aged children
presents special challenges to health educators.
– e-health programs need to be developed specifically to
appeal to the generational (highly connected and
computer literate) and cultural needs of this group.
• The Children’s Nutrition Research Center has
responded to these challenges by supporting the
development of nutrition education programs as
interactive computer games, video games, and
cartoons referred to as ‘edutainment’ (Flores 2006).

14. Health Games Examples
• Healthy Habits Games
• Learn About Allergies
• Staying Fit
• Kids Health Games
• Exercise and Eating Healthy

15. Promoting Health Literacy
• Nurses and other health care providers
need to embrace the Internet as a source
of health information for patient education
and health literacy.
• Patients are increasingly turning there for
‘instant’ information about their health
maladies.

16. Patient Education
• The Health on the Net (HON) Foundation
Survey (2005) describes the certifications
and accreditation symbols that identify
trusted health sites.
• The HONcode and Trust-e were identified
as the two most common symbols that
power users look for.

17. Patient Education
• The Pew Internet Survey (2006) indicates
that nearly 75% of online searchers do not
check the date or the source of information
they are accessing on the web and 3% of
online health seekers report knowing
someone who was harmed by following
health information found on the web.

18. Patient Education
• The US National Library of Medicine and
the National Institutes of Health sponsor
MedlinePlus a web site that has a tutorial
for learning how to evaluate health
information as well as an electronic guide
to web surfing that is available in both
English and Spanish.

19. Future Directions
• Audio and video podcasts may become more
commonplace in health education and be
provided as free downloads from the websites of
HCOs.
• Voice recognition software used to navigate the
Web may reduce the frustration and confusion
associated with attempting to spell complex
medical terms.
• Multiple language access to health information
and decision-support tools.

20. Future Directions
• Interactive Behavior Change Technology
(IBCT) for diabetes management (Piette 2007)
– The goal is to improve communication between
patients and health care providers and provide
educational interventions to promote better disease
management between visits.
– Use a combination of electronic medication reminders,
meters that track glycemic control longitudinally, and
personal digital assistant–based calculators to promote
behavioral interventions necessary to better manage
the diabetes.

21. Information Prescriptions
(D’Alessandro, 2010)
• Direct patients and families to credible websites:
– government and HCO websites
• Suggest wikis and blogs that may help with
understanding their health issues or share
information with and seek support from others
who have similar issues.
• “Information prescriptions are prescriptions of
focused, evidence-based information given to a
patient at the right time to manage a health
problem” (p. 81).

22. Thought Provoking Questions
1. How do you envision technology
enhancing patient education in your
setting?
2. Formulate a plan evidencing a potent
patient education episode on MRSA.
Provide a rationale for each approach and
describe a tool you would use to educate
the patient and his/her family.