http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/health/131213_onlinehealth17.html

Thursday, July 17, 2003

Online health sites a key resource

By MARY VUONG
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

When her mother was diagnosed with lung cancer, Charmaine Hawke didn't know what to expect. She hunted for answers online.

When the cancer spread to the brain, doctors suggested a treatment called Gamma Knife.

"I said, 'What is it?' I wanted to know more," Hawke said. Again, she turned to the Internet and learned the procedure destroys abnormalities in the brain with gamma radiation.

Hawke, who lives near Gig Harbor, has refilled prescriptions, booked appointments and messaged her physician, all on the Net.

"I work two jobs, and I really don't have time to sit in the office and wait for an appointment or run up to get a prescription," said Hawke, 43, a secretary supervisor for the state and part-time karaoke host and disc jockey.

Hawke is just one of an increasing number of Americans who have embraced the online world when they need health information, according to a national survey released today.

Eighty percent of Internet users older than 18 -- about 93 million people -- have combed the Net for information about at least one of the 15 health-related topics posed by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, according to the survey. The initiative is part of the Pew Research Center, an independent opinion research group.

In addition to surfing, health seekers also are increasingly seeking and swapping information with family, friends and sometimes doctors by way of e-mail and discussion boards.

The searches can be wide-ranging, from a recovering alcoholic finding solace in a forum to holiday overeaters enlisting diet sites to aid their New Year's resolutions.

Most people were hungriest for information about a specific disease or medical problem, followed by a medical treatment or procedure, according to the survey of 4,000 people.

"That says to me that people are really reacting to a diagnosis," said Susannah Fox, research director of the Pew Internet Project. "They're probably preparing for a doctor's appointment as well as recovering from a doctor's appointment."

More "e-patients" were women, wealthier, white, better educated, younger than age 65 and experienced online.

When not given a list of topics to choose from, fewer people replied that they had researched health information online -- just 66 percent, or 77 million American adults, in 2003. That was still a jump from three years ago, when 54 percent of Internet users, or 50 million, responded yes. Of all the regular e-mailers surveyed, nearly one-third have exchanged a health-related message, but only 7 percent with their medical providers.

Doctor-patient e-mailing is a controversial issue now, including whether the doctor should be compensated for the time. And questions have been raised about how accurate the response could be without an in-person meeting.

But Group Health Cooperative, a Puget Sound-area health maintenance organization, considers such online features vital to its preventive-care approach, said Dr. Ted Eytan, the lead consulting physician for its Web site.

The consumer-governed company, through a secure site, offers e-mail for non-urgent issues, prescription refills, appointment requests, topical forums and an extensive database that's updated several times annually.

It has trained physicians on effective messaging and even advertised the option on television: Seen the one where the woman spots her doctor at the grocery store and fruitlessly races after him?

"How often do you get to talk to your doctor informally and just ask a simple question?" asked Hawke, a member of the HMO.

Earlier this year, her 20-year-old son got sick while away at college in Arizona. Did he have the flu or a bad cold? She compared the symptoms he described with those in the database.

If she's unsure of her source, Hawke will seek others -- "kind of like searching for a second opinion." She stays away from sites that demand payment for a diagnosis.

Nearly three-quarters in the Pew survey said they've benefited from online information and services. But, like Hawke, many say they want more -- specifically, medical records and test results.

The federal government announced this month it plans to build a national system that would give patients and their doctors that access.

Group Health will add online lab results in a month, Eytan said.

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