Are you having trouble finding quality health information on the web? You might ask your doctor to write you an "Online Information Prescription."
"We hear from patients and families that they're having trouble finding good healthcare information on the Internet, and we hear from healthcare providers who they think the families they treat are using some questionable information," said Donna D'Alessandro, MD, associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Iowa. "Using Internet prescriptions to guide families to good information will help solve these problems for both groups."
A University of Iowa study shows that information prescriptions cost nearly nothing, take a short amount of time, and are an effective way to put patients in touch with quality health information on the Internet. The finding, based on a study of pediatricians and families at one hospital, appears in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.
Two groups of parents at Children's Hospital of Iowa were surveyed about their Internet use before their child's regular office visit. Half the parents were then randomly assigned to receive information prescriptions during the visit while the other half did not get these prescriptions. Two to three weeks later, both groups were surveyed by phone about their post-visit Internet use.
The parents who received the information prescription were more likely than the other group to use the Internet for health information in general and specifically for child health questions – and to visit sites their doctors recommended.
"Writing an information prescription is basically no-cost and easy. It's the cost of the paper on which to list recommended Web sites and the brief time it takes to do it," Dr. D'Alessandro said.
The pediatricians participating in the study could recommend any sites they wished. However, the prescription included a pre-printed list of these reputable sites:
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