“Knowledge is power,” intoned a most serious James Madison, fourth U.S. president, “Father of the (U.S.) Constitution” and husband to the vivacious Dolly Payne Todd Madison.
Except that he worded it slightly differently. And he was referring to matters of government. Nearly 20 decades later, knowledge still wields power. Except that in this instance it refers to matters of health, not government. And in the current healthcare environment, it also applies to the empowering knowledge gleaned via the World Wide Web.
“People get their information about healthcare in six ways. The first is individual care — Gee, I have a headache; I’ll take some aspirin,” begins Adele Motter, principal, Philips Healthcare Consulting (Shelton, Conn.). “The next is friends and family — ‘I have this pain, dad has this pain. I’ll ask him what I should do.’ The third is the self-help network, which can include such things as screening programs for cholesterol and blood pressure, but on the Web means healthcare information sites, chat rooms. They [self-help networks] are geared to people who believe they need medical care, and they get it themselves. They are not necessarily referred there by physicians.”
(To complete the sextet: The remaining three sources of healthcare information involve patients’ considering healthcare professionals as facilitators, as partners and as authorities.)
Please refer to the July 2001 issue for the complete story. For information on article reprints, contact Martin St. Denis
