Linking clinic patients to Internet-based, condition-specific information prescriptions

Abstract

Colledge et al. suggested a direct-to-patient health information intervention enhances both patient communication and education, and they recommended that physicians consider the Internet a patient educational tool [1]. However, despite the easy availability of accurate medical information on the Internet, the majority of clinical practices have not successfully incorporated Internet education into clinic workflow. McMullen suggested physicians might save time, contribute to patient education, and influence patient information seeking by recommending health information websites tailored to a patient's specific condition [2]. D'Alessandro et al. [3] and Siegel et al. [4] used the term “information prescription” to describe a physician-directed Internet health education intervention. In these studies, physicians provided condition-specific, paper-based information prescriptions for patient education and communication. These prescriptions have been tied, in some cases, to Medline Plus [5], a comprehensive, commercial-free, Internet-based consumer health information resource provided by the US National Library of Medicine [4]. Siegel et al. reported modest improvements in patient health information seeking, increased awareness of MedlinePlus, and increased patient interest when receiving an information prescription from a physician [4]. D'Alessandro et al. also found improvements in Internet health information seeking, although only 32% of patients who were given paper information prescriptions had used them during the follow-up period [3]. Ritterband et al. found that an email reminder increased patient compliance with paper information prescriptions by 45% [6]. While the literature suggests that information prescriptions can modestly enhance patient education, studies to date have relied on paper-based prescriptions or verbal recommendations, which might have resulted in limited compliance. To test this hypothesis, the authors created email information prescriptions for selected medical conditions that were specifically tailored with physician-selected links to MedlinePlus. The authors hypothesized that: (1) a physician-directed, condition-specific, email information prescription (using links to the MedlinePlus website) would be favorably evaluated by patients; and (2) intervention patients would be more likely to use MedlinePlus when compared to a control group. The authors also anticipated that a physician-directed, condition-specific information prescription would be favorably received by internists in an ambulatory and a HIV clinic setting.