C32.
Katz, J. E. & Rice, R. E. (2001). Concluding thoughts. In R. E.
Rice
& J. E. Katz (Eds.), The Internet and health communication:
Expectations and
experiences (pp. 417-429). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
In this chapter, we advance some touchstone
issues for consideration by scholars and policy-makers. We also seek to
highlight experiences that suggest some might wish to temper what
we judge to be excessively exuberant
expectations of what the Internet can deliver in terms of healthcare.
Cost-Benefit Comparisons
The Implication of Integration for Near-Term
Investments
Surmounting the Foothills Only to See the
Mountains
Facilitating Health Communication
Expectations, Ethics and Interests
Hopes, Empowerment and Responsibility
Research Issues
Major health care issues include who is the community of interest
(i.e.,
stakeholders), what is the content, where and when does connectivity
occur,
how this is accomplished through software and computers, whether the
health
care is virtual or real, who pays, and the legislation, rules and
regulations
that affect the quality of health care and the uses of the
Internet.
Note that stakeholders include a wide range of actors, from health care
providers
and patients to significant others, medical researchers, and insurance
companies.
There is little research on most of the cross-stakeholder interactions,
except
for the initial work on Internet mediation of physician-patient, and
patient-patient
communication, as well as work on provider-provider interaction.
Major research issues include outcomes such as health efficacy and
cost-efficiency,
the form and process of decision-making at the community,
organizational,
and individual level, access to and equity of care, privacy and
security
of personalizable health information, barriers to access and use, and
the
flows and networks of communication among patients and providers, and
methodology
(both ethical and practical aspects of medical information and Internet
usage
data).
Conclusion
References
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