Doctors are finding that well informed patients who understand the nature of their illness and its treatment are likely to get well more quickly and have a better quality of life.
The huge variety of information sources available, Internet included, has strengthened the trend of patients to be more informed and motivated and taking a much more active role in their healthcare. The empowerment of patients is a dominant feature in the shaping of their relationship with health providers.
According to literature people obtain more health information from magazines and newspaper than from any other source, even their doctors, but information, like medication, carries risks as well benefits. Information implies misinformation: in fact some coverage may be inaccurate and overly enthusiastic.
This information distorts the interaction between doctor and patient, by focusing on the “news” rather than on the necessary diagnostic and therapeutic decision. Any tool helping doctors to establish a correct relationship is welcome.
As Centre for Studies on Drug Communication, we have been requested to design an alerting service for general practitioners on health and medical news published in lay press. The pilot project foresees the daily scanning of the top newspapers and their medical supplements, and main women’s magazines. The topics will be selected for relevance and structured according to therapeutic areas. Ad hoc descriptive titles, indicative abstracts, main features of news, references and links to newspaper articles and scientific papers, when available, will be provided. A weekly alert will be e-mailed to doctors. On request, full texts of the news and referred scientific papers will be provided.
This alert has been designed for doctors, but could be useful for patients if news is commented with the indication of their clinical relevance.
This news alert could be integrated into the portfolio of the added value services delivered from any health libraries, replacing or integrating traditional services that in certain settings could be considered obsolete for the advent of new technologies.
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