C50. Rice, R. E. & Katz, J. E. (2006).
Internet use in physician practice and patient interaction. In M.
Murero & R.E. Rice (Eds). The
Internet and health care:
Theory, research and practice (pp. 149-176). Mahwah, NJ:
Lawrence
Erlbaum
Associates.
This chapter analyses a national random survey of physicians
(n=1050) concerning their interaction with other physicians and with
their patients as affected by their patients’ use of the Internet.
Results are juxtaposed with prior research according to six aspects of
this interaction: characteristics of (1) physicians (such as
evaluations of public health information) and (2) their patients (such
as number of patients); use of the Internet by (3) physicians (such as
emailing their patients) and (4) their patients (such as talking to
their physicians about Internet information, patients’ assessment of
health websites); and outcomes for (5) physicians (such as overall
evaluation of how this information affected the physician-patient
relation) and (6) their patients (such as effects of the online health
information on communication with their physician). From 4% to
24% of the variance in physician and patient Internet uses was
explained by factors such as physician evaluation of public health
information and the accuracy of Internet information, their assessment
of the effects of that information, encouraging patients to look for
medical information, and patient characteristics. From 11% to 24%
of the variance in physician and patient outcomes was explained by
factors such as physicians’ use of email to communicate with their
patients, referring patients to specific websites, and physician
evaluations of the accuracy, relevance and reliability of the Internet
information their patients talk about. The strongest influences
on usage overall are physicians’ perceptions of the evaluation,
accuracy and effects of publicly available health information and
encouraging their patients to look for their own medical and health
information. The strongest influences on outcomes overall are
physicians’ use of email to communicate with their patients, their
evaluations of the accuracy and relevance of the online health
information their patients talk about, and how good their patients are
at assessing health websites.
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