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‡ Define health literacy and eHealth.

‡ Explore various technology-based
approaches to consumer health education.
‡ Identify barriers to us of technology and
issues associated with health-related
consumer education.
‡ Imagine future approaches to technology-
supported consumer education.

 

‡ The challenge for consumers and health

care professionals alike is the
proliferation of information on the
Internet and the need to learn how to
recognize when information is accurate
and useful for the situation at hand.
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‡ Consumer Empowerment
-consumers are taking control of their health
and are not satisfied being dependent on a
health care provider to supply them with
information.

‡ The Pew Internet and American Life Project

survey report of 2006 (Fox 2006) indicates
that 8 in 10 of Americans who are online have
searched for health information.
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‡ The survey is limited to those who are
online, and does not reflect the health
information needs or demands of those
who are not online.
‡ The digital divide is the term used to
describe the gap between those who
have and those who do not have access
to online information.
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‡ Missen and Cook (2007), discuss the
potential impact that technology based health
information dissemination can have on the
know-do gap in developing countries.
‡ The know-do gap reflects the fact that
solutions to global health problems exist but
are not implemented in a timely fashion
because of the lack of access to important
health information.











‡ The goal of health literacy for all is one that is
widely embraced in many sectors of health
care, and a major goal of Healthy People
2010.

- Health Literacy - ³the degree to which

individuals have the capacity to obtain,
process, and understand basic health
information and services needed to make
appropriate health decisions".











‡ developed to address the growing need
for managing health information and to
promote technology as a means of
improving health information exchange,
health literacy and health care delivery.


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1. Patient Education information stored
electronically so that changes can be made
as needed or information can be better
tailored to the specific patient situation and
then printed out and reviewed with the
patient.
2. Many HCO¶s sponsor health promotion
education classes as a way of marketing their
facilities and showcasing some of their expert
practitioners.


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±. Promote education via pamphlet
distribution, health promotion programs
broadcast on TV, and health information
kiosks.
‡ One caution : Just because the
information is made available does not
mean that people will participate or that
they will understand what they have
experienced.
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‡ Promoting health literacy in school aged
children presents special challenges to health
educators.
‡ The Children¶s Nutrition Research Center has
responded to these challenges by supporting
the development of nutrition education
programs as interactive computer games,
video games, and cartoons referred to as
µedutainment¶ (Flores 2006).
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‡ Donovan (2005) describes an
Interdisciplinary WebQuest designed to
appeal to older school aged children.
‡ The Quest is interdisciplinary in that it
requires reading comprehension, critical
thinking, presentation, and writing so
that core skills and health literacy skills
are learned in a single assignment.
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‡ Nurses and other health care providers
need to embrace the Internet as a
source of health information for patient
education and health literacy.
‡ Patients are increasingly turning there
for µinstant¶ information about their
health maladies.
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‡ The Health on the Net (HON)

Foundation Survey (2005) describes the
certifications and accreditation symbols
that identify trusted health sites.
‡ The HONcode and Trust-e were
identified as the two most common
symbols that power users look for.
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Pew Internet Survey (2006)

‡ 75% of online searchers do not check
the date or the source of information
they are accessing on the web
‡ ±% of online health seekers report
knowing someone who was harmed by
following health information found on
the web.
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‡ The US National Library of Medicine

and the National Institutes of Health
sponsor MedlinePlus a web site that
has a tutorial for learning how to
evaluate health information as well as
an electronic guide to web surfing that is
available in both English and Spanish.
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‡ Predicting future directions for

technology based health education is
somewhat difficult, because we may not
be able to completely envision the
technology of the future.
‡ Piette (2007) describes the use of
Interactive Behavior Change
Technology (IBCT) to improve the
effectiveness of diabetes management.
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‡ The goal of the IBCT is to improve

communication between patients and
health care providers and provide
educational interventions to promote
better disease management between
visits.
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‡ How do you envision technology

enhancing patient education in your
setting?
‡ Formulate a plan evidencing a potent
patient education episode on MRSA.
Provide a rationale for each approach
and describe a tool you would use to
educate the patient and his/her family.