Electronic health information and long-term conditions

Abstract

This article discusses the increasing availability of health-related information, and the impact that this can have for people with long-term conditions' expectations of healthcare providers. The article suggests a framework for decision making about the role that healthcare staff should play in the information searching, retrieval, and synthesis activities which people with long-term conditions engage in. The framework is based on a series of decisions related to: perceptions of ownership of long-term conditions; whether intermediatory or apomediatory approaches to information management are deemed to be most appropriate; and, as a result of these considerations, what, if any, place healthcare staff should take in the process of patients searching or and interpreting information about long-term health needs. These decisions will enable healthcare providers to plan services based on clear decision pathways, and to clarify to all concerned what are deemed to be reasonable expectations of health service provision.