Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
This article was downloaded by: [Eastern Michigan University]On: 11 October 2014, At: 08:22Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH,UK
Journal of Consumer Health Onthe InternetPublication details, including instructions forauthors and subscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/wchi20
Creating a More InformedHealth Care ConsumerSusan E. Werner MLS a & Mary Carmen Chimato MLS,MSIS aa Health Sciences Center Library , Stony BrookUniversity , Stony Brook, NY, 11794-8034, USAPublished online: 03 Oct 2008.
To cite this article: Susan E. Werner MLS & Mary Carmen Chimato MLS, MSIS (2005)Creating a More Informed Health Care Consumer, Journal of Consumer Health On theInternet, 9:4, 27-33, DOI: 10.1300/J381v09n04_03
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1300/J381v09n04_03
PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE
Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all theinformation (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform.However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make norepresentations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness,or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and viewsexpressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, andare not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of theContent should not be relied upon and should be independently verified withprimary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for anylosses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages,and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly orindirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of theContent.
This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes.Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan,sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone isexpressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found athttp://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Eas
tern
Mic
higa
n U
nive
rsity
] at
08:
22 1
1 O
ctob
er 2
014
Creating a More InformedHealth Care Consumer:
How One Medical Library Participatesin Mini Medical School
Susan E. WernerMary Carmen Chimato
ABSTRACT. A 2005 Pew Internet and American Life Project surveyon search engine users revealed that 70% of Internet users are aware andcomfortable with the concept of paid or sponsored results to their query.While this concept may not be important when conducting searches onculture, news, or trivial inquiries, health information is of vital impor-tance. More and more people are using the Internet to find informationabout their personal health and are innocently clicking away at the first re-sults presented. Librarians are obligated to educate consumers and trainthem to question, on a continuous basis, the bias and financial motivationaffecting how search engines perform and present results. Mini MedicalSchool provides a venue for such instruction. This article describes howone medical library actively participates in its School of Medicine’s MiniMedical School program and focuses on the curriculum used to teachconsumers ways to find quality health care information online. [Articlecopies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service:1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: <[email protected]> Web-site: <http://www.HaworthPress.com> © 2005 by The Haworth Press, Inc. Allrights reserved.]
Susan E. Werner, MLS ([email protected]) is Informatics Librarian,and Mary Carmen Chimato, MLS, MSIS ([email protected]) is Head ofAccess Services; both at Health Sciences Center Library, Stony Brook University,Stony Brook, NY 11794-8034.
Journal of Consumer Health on the Internet, Vol. 9(4) 2005Available online at http://www.haworthpress.com/web/JCHI
2005 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.doi:10.1300/J381v09n04_03 27
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Eas
tern
Mic
higa
n U
nive
rsity
] at
08:
22 1
1 O
ctob
er 2
014
KEYWORDS. Mini Medical School, consumer health information, in-formation literacy, MedlinePlus
INTRODUCTION
The Stony Brook University Health Sciences Center is Long Island’sonly academic health science center. Located on the north shore ofLong Island, it is comprised of the Schools of Dental Medicine, HealthTechnology and Management, Medicine, Nursing, and Social Welfare.The Center’s central resources are the 540-bed University Hospital, the350-bed Long Island State Veteran’s Home, a dental center, and 18 af-filiated faculty practices that treat over 30,000 inpatients and over a halfmillion outpatients each year. In an effort to raise the public’s aware-ness of biomedical research and health care resources available to them,the Stony Brook University School of Medicine began a Mini MedicalSchool program in 2000. Mini Medical School attracts a broad spec-trum of attendees from Suffolk County.
Mini Medical School is an informative and entertaining public edu-cation program designed to familiarize participants with medical termi-nology and provide insight into biomedical research and patient care.Participants learn directly from the experts how their bodies work andways to take an active role in maintaining their health.
The program is offered annually in the fall and is a series of eight eve-ning sessions. The topics for each evening are drawn from the medicalschool curriculum. Stony Brook professors and informatics librariansaddress health-related topics ranging from laboratory research and clin-ical trials to preventive medicine. Past topics have included basic sci-ence, ethics, cancer, heart disease, trauma, bioterrorism, and familyviolence.
However, for all the interest and enthusiasm participants exhibit inlearning more about health care, very little attention is given to how thepublic finds its health care information. A 2000 PC Data Online poll re-ported that 60% of Americans had visited a health or medical Web sitein the past year and more than 56% were researching health symptomsin an attempt to self diagnose.1 According to a 2005 Pew Internet andAmerican Life Project survey on search engines users, 66% of Internetusers, over 53 million people, have looked online for health informa-tion. Of this group, 81% reported that they began their research using asearch engine, while the remaining 19% went directly to health sitesrecommended by friends, family, or links from familiar Web sites.2
28 JOURNAL OF CONSUMER HEALTH ON THE INTERNET
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Eas
tern
Mic
higa
n U
nive
rsity
] at
08:
22 1
1 O
ctob
er 2
014
BASIC COMPUTING
For their portion of Mini Medical School, Stony Brook University’sHealth Sciences Center Library created the curriculum and handout,Patient 101: Taking Charge of Your Health Care by Using EvidenceBased Information. The 44-page handout is divided into five sections:Background and Foundations, Navigating the Information Landscape,MedlinePlus and Other Consumer Health Resources, Information Liter-acy in Health Care, and Patient and Health Literacy. The five sections ofPatient 101 were developed to cover the different skill levels of thestudents. Prior to the library’s Mini Medical School session, partici-pants are given a self-assessment Computer and Information LiteracySkills pretest (see the Appendix) to determine their experience levelwith computers and the Internet. Based on the results of the pretest,participants are divided into beginner, intermediate, and advancedclasses.
The Background and Foundations section of the curriculum providesthose who are relatively new to the Internet with a general understand-ing of the organization and navigation of the World Wide Web and abroad overview of the origins and foundations of the Internet. Accord-ing to the 2004 Computer and Information Literacy Skills pretest, 28%of Mini Medical School attendees had little or no experience using acomputer or performing online searches. The librarian instructed stu-dents in “Computing 101,” teaching them such basic skills as how to usethe mouse correctly, entering a URL, and clicking on a hyperlink.
Once participants mastered basic skills, the librarian then intro-duced them to basic Web page design and how to navigate the Web us-ing a browser. Based on the responses to the 2004 pretest, 44% ofparticipants had problems differentiating between a Web page, a Webbrowser, and a search engine. It is important to illustrate the differencesbetween each of these entities. Students grasp the concept of distinctentities when they are compared to a type of technology with whichthey are comfortable. The preferred example that was used by theHealth Sciences Center librarians is the telephone and its various partsand associated service providers. For those more experienced withWeb searching, the curriculum must be a pathfinder to locating highquality consumer health resources, while instructing users on how toadopt tools and practices for filtering the volumes of health misinforma-tion that abound on the Internet.
Susan E. Werner and Mary Carmen Chimato 29
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Eas
tern
Mic
higa
n U
nive
rsity
] at
08:
22 1
1 O
ctob
er 2
014
REFINING SEARCHES AND EVALUATING WEB SITES
During an informal class discussion, most students admitted thattheir method of finding health information on the Web is to open theirbrowser to their favorite search engine, type a medical topic, and pressenter. When confronted with the thousands of hits received from theirsearch, students immediately click on the first page that is presented tothem regardless of the validity of the information. Outlining this searchmethod to Mini Medical School students elicited nods of agreement andlaughter; many admitted that this is their usual search routine. This typeof search strategy is common and is reflected in the 68% of users in thePew survey, who believed their search engines are fair and unbiasedsources of information; only 19% disagreed.2
To ensure that high quality medical information is retrieved fromthe Internet, the librarian must stress the abundance of misleading in-formation available and focus instruction on ways to evaluate Websites. Using the Medical Library Association’s (MLA) Content Evalu-ation Guidelines, students were instructed how to ascertain the credibil-ity of a Web site. Instruction focused on the following key Web sitecharacteristics: sponsorship, currency, factual information, and audi-ence.
The Pew survey revealed that most Internet users are not aware ofhow the technology behind search engines actually works and are un-aware of the common practice of listing paid or sponsored results first.Consequently, searchers will click on the first links that appear in the re-sults, believing that these results are listed by quality and accuracy,rather than financial incentives. Informatics librarians should explainthe reality of ways search results are ranked and listed by a search en-gine, and how this listing varies from search engine to search engine.
Once this distinction is made, librarians should present participantswith examples of both sponsored and non-sponsored Web sites. Con-sumers can be assured of quality medical information by becoming fa-miliar with MLA’s “Top Ten” Most Useful Consumer Health Websites. Each one of these sites should be examined thoroughly, so con-sumers may confidently navigate them on their own after the class ses-sions.
When the students master the tools to evaluate a medical Web siteand see these tools in action by visiting the “Top Ten” sites, they maynow be introduced to the preeminent source for consumer health infor-mation, the National Library of Medicine’s MedlinePlus. The informa-tion provided by MedlinePlus is credible, up to date, and commercial
30 JOURNAL OF CONSUMER HEALTH ON THE INTERNET
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Eas
tern
Mic
higa
n U
nive
rsity
] at
08:
22 1
1 O
ctob
er 2
014
free. During the course of the class, students used MedlinePlus to findinformation on medical conditions, disease and wellness, participationin clinical trials, pharmaceuticals, directories for physician location,medical dictionaries, and links to other medical resources.
Due to time constraints, MedlinePlus was the only Web site whereparticipants typed a term into a search box and hit “enter.” The site pro-vided users with results of a simple search, which were easy to navigateand understand. This simple search provided an entrance point to beginsearching through the wealth of available information. Librarians di-rected students to the Health Topic link, which provided access to infor-mation on the condition or disease the student searched.
CLASS AND CURRICULUM GOALS
Consumers must be encouraged to become active participants in theirhealth care decisions. Current reputable medical information will al-ways exist along with questionable and inaccurate medical information.Mini Medical School strives to educate consumers to differentiate be-tween the two, so they are able to make more informed health care deci-sions. Once consumers are armed with accurate and current healthinformation, they may feel more comfortable approaching physicianswith questions and concerns regarding their personal health care. Pa-tient 101 reinforces patient empowerment by including information andfact sheets aimed at aiding patient communication. Topics included inthe handout are:
• Tips for clear health communication.• Information explaining the necessity of a health care proxy form,
including a sample draft.• A periodic screening test chart that provides the recommended fre-
quency of periodic health exams for healthy patients.• National Patient Safety Foundation (NSFP) fact sheets, such as
“What You Can Do to Make Healthcare Safer,” “The Role of thePatient Advocate,” and “Preventing Infections in the Hospital–What You Can Do.”
This information is included in the Patient and Health Literacy sec-tion of Patient 101. Also included in this section is information aboutvarious support groups and ongoing health education programs andscreenings available through Stony Brook University Hospital.
Susan E. Werner and Mary Carmen Chimato 31
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Eas
tern
Mic
higa
n U
nive
rsity
] at
08:
22 1
1 O
ctob
er 2
014
The Health Sciences Center Library at Stony Brook University wasfortunate that the School of Medicine recognized the need for consumereducation regarding health care information literacy and invited the li-brarians to participate in Mini Medical School from its inception. Li-brarians have the responsibility to ensure that consumers are not onlygiven a list of accurate and up-to-date medical Web sites, but are alsoeducated on how to navigate and evaluate these sites. If a hospital ormedical school is planning to host a Mini Medical School program, it isimperative for librarians to become active participants in the sessions.Providing coordinators with articles or surveys, such as the 2005 PewInternet and Life survey discussed in this article, can offer supportivedata for the library’s involvement.
CONCLUSION
The library’s involvement and participation for the past five years ineducating consumers in health care information has proven to be a vitalcomponent of the Mini Medical School program. The library portion ofStony Brook University’s School of Medicine’s Mini Medical Schoolcontinues to be one of the most popular sections in the entire program. Itis important that each year instructors update their curriculum to ensurethat students are exposed to information that is both accurate andtimely. MedlinePlus will continue to be a central part of the library’sMini Medical School curriculum.
Received: February 10, 2005Revised: April 11, 2005
Accepted: April 25, 2005
REFERENCES
1. Calabretta, N. “Consumer-Driven, Patient-Centered Health Care in the Age ofElectronic Information.” Journal of the Medical Library Association 90(January 2002):32-7.
2. Fallows, D. “Search Engine Users: Internet Searchers are Confident, Satisfiedand Trusting-But They are Also Unaware and Naïve.” Pew Internet & American LifeProject [electronic document] (Washington, D.C.: Pew Research Center, 2005). Avail-able: <http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Searchengine_users.pdf>. Accessed: Feb-ruary 9, 2005.
32 JOURNAL OF CONSUMER HEALTH ON THE INTERNET
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Eas
tern
Mic
higa
n U
nive
rsity
] at
08:
22 1
1 O
ctob
er 2
014
APPENDIX
Name:________________________________________________________________
Health Sciences Center LibraryStony Brook University
Mini Medical School 2004
“Patient 101: Taking Charge of Your Health UsingEvidenced-Based Information”
Computer & Information Literacy Skills
This following information is needed for the “Patient 101” segment of Mini-Med School; it will be used toplace you with a group of other Mini-Med School participants whose computer skills and Internet experi-ence are comparable to yours.
For each of the following statements, please check the box that most accurately describes your confidencelevel.
1. I am comfortable using a computer and understand the function and operation of a computer key-board, mouse, monitor, etc.�very confident �somewhat confident �less than confident �not at all confident
2. I am comfortable using standard desktop software applications, such as a word processing program(e.g., Microsoft Word or Word Perfect).�very confident �somewhat confident �less than confident �not at all confident
3. I am confident of my ability to distinguish between a web page, a web browser, and a search engine.�very confident �somewhat confident �less than confident �not at all confident
4. I am confident of my ability to use the Internet/World Wide Web to find general, non-medical informa-tion (news, weather, etc.).�very confident �somewhat confident �less than confident �not at all confident
5. I am confident of my ability to use the Internet/World Wide Web to find reliable medical and healthcare information.�very confident �somewhat confident �less than confident �not at all confident
6. I am confident of my ability to distinguish between reliable, authoritative sources and unreliable,non-authoritative sources of online health care information.�very confident �somewhat confident �less than confident �not at all confident
7. Overall, I would rate my computer skills as:�Advanced �Intermediate �Beginner
Reprinted with permission.
Susan E. Werner and Mary Carmen Chimato 33
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Eas
tern
Mic
higa
n U
nive
rsity
] at
08:
22 1
1 O
ctob
er 2
014
