Developing policies for e-health: use of online health information by Australian health professionals and their patients

Abstract

An online survey (www.limesurvey.org) was used to identify patterns of usage of health information available on the Internet by fi ve major Australian health professions (AHPs): general practice, social work, dietetics, physiotherapy and optometry. Survey questions were developed to explore participants’ responses associated with their level of Internet usage. From the fi ve AHPs (n=746), it was found that social workers and dietitians most frequently recommended health websites to their patients (11–20% of the time throughout a 12-month period [2009]). Health information topics most frequently recommended and brought to health professionals’ attention by patients were concerned with ‘specifi c health conditions’ and the main source professionals used to access health information was identifi ed through the use of ‘search engines’. This study further reports that Internet recommendations from health professionals1 (1–10%), Internet requests from patients2 (<1%) and Internet consultation processes3 (1%), do not mirror similar international research. It is recommended that development of policies that might infl uence e-health should not be based on a presumption that the use of the Internet for accessing health information is universal or that the Internet strongly infl uences Australian healthcare delivery. Key words (MeSH): Internet; Telemedicine; Health Care; Health Policy; Health Information; Decision Making