e-Patients are health consumers who use the Internet

Internet

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

 to gather information about a medical condition of particular interest to them, and who use electronic communication tools (including Web 2.0 tools) in coping with medical conditions. The term encompasses both those who seek online guidance for their own ailments and the friends and family members (e-Caregivers) who go online on their behalf. e-Patients report two effects of their online health research: "better health information and services, and different (but not always better) relationships with their doctors."

e-Patients are increasingly active in their care and are demonstrating the power of the Participatory Medicine

Participatory Medicine

The Society for Participatory Medicine defines Participatory Medicine as a movement in which networked patients shift from being mere passengers to responsible drivers of their health, and in which providers encourage and value them as full partners....

 or Health 2.0

Health 2.0

Health 2.0 are terms representing the possibilities between health care, eHealth and Web 2.0, and has come into use after a recent spate of articles in newspapers, and by Physicians and Medical Librarians...

 / Medicine 2.0. model of care. They are equipped, enabled, empowered, engaged, equals, emancipated and experts.

• Equipped with the skills to manage their own condition.
• Enabled to make choices about self-care and those choices are respected.
• Empowered
• Engaged patients are engaged in their own care
• Equals in their partnerships with the various physicians involved in their care
• Emancipated
• Expert patients can improve their self-rated health status, cope better with fatigue and other generic features of chronic disease such as role limitation, and reduce disability and their dependence on hospital care.

Based on the current state of knowledge on the impact of e-patients on the healthcare system and the quality of care received:

• A growing number of people say the internet has played a crucial or important role as they helped another person cope with a major illness.
• Since the advent of the Internet, many clinicians have underestimated the benefits and overestimated the risks of online health resources for patients.
• Medical online support group
  Support group
  In a support group, members provide each other with various types of help, usually nonprofessional and nonmaterial, for a particular shared, usually burdensome, characteristic...
  
  s have become an important healthcare resource.
• The net friendliness of clinicians and provider organizations—as rated by the e-patients they serve—is becoming an important new aspect of healthcare quality.
• This is one the most important cultural medical revolution of the past century, mediated and driven by technology.
• The impact of the e-patient cannot be fully understood and appreciated in the context of pre-internet medical constructs. Research must combine expertise from specialties that are not used to work together.
• It is crucial for medical education to take the e-patient into account, and to prepare students for medical practice that encompasses the e-patient

The proportion of e-patients in selected patient populations seem to be highest in the US and Canada. European countries seem to lag.

External links

• The rise of the e-patient, Lee Rainie from the Pew Internet and American Life Project presentation at the Medical Library Association, Oct 7, 2009
• E-patients With a Disability or Chronic Disease, from the Pew Internet and American Life Project
• Association of Cancer Online Resources (ACOR), an aggregate of e-patient online communities for knowledge-sharing about cancer.
• E-Patients Prefer eGroups to Doctors for 10 of 12 Aspects of Health Care. 1999 article by Dr. Tom Ferguson.
• Time Magazine article: "When the patient is a Googler" - Mary Shomons response - Trisha Torreys response
• Who Cares Booklet by the Federal Trade Commission, a guide to health information
• Infographic: The Empowered E-Patient summary of data focusing on e-patients developed by the Path of the Blue Eye Project, an educational initiative for health marketing communications professionals