PATIENT INFORMATICS - CREATING NEW PARTNERSHIPS IN MEDICAL DECISION-MAKING

The amassing of health information on the Internet and World Wide Web continues unabated. Patients anxious to participate in decisions about their own treatment have turned to the Internet to confirm diagnoses, validate physician-recommended treatment, or seek alternative therapi es. While increased information for patients has been linked to improv ed outcomes, there are inherent dangers associated with the kind of un authenticated information available on the Web. The authors discuss th e nature of these dangers as well as review the advantages for patient s of ''information therapy'' (improved access to health information). They also examine how the Internet has begun to affect the physician-p atient relationship, and describe how the Internet and information tec hnology can be effectively used by physicians in patient care. They re commend that I-he academic health sciences community seize the opportu nity to take the lead in ensuring that patients have access to reliabl e health information, and suggest that ''patient informatics'' be inte grated by academic physicians and educators into the teaching of clini cal skills.