Week 6 eHealth

      In week 6 of health informatics we discussed eHealth. Gulzar, Khoja and Sajwani (2013) state “eHealth is defined as the utilization of information and communication technologies (ICT) to support health and health related fields, such as health surveillance, healthcare services, health literature, health education, knowledge and research” (p.1).

      This weeks class facilitation began their activity by asking the class about their social media accounts and if they had ever used these to research health information. What I did not know that this group made clear to me was that Facebook could be used to search general information. After discovering this I will take into consideration using Facebook as a resource when searching topics online. Another question this group asked the class was if they had ever self diagnosed online. I was able to admit that I have done this before and continue to do so. Unfortunately I rarely tend to make visits with my doctor to follow up on these findings that I come across. Do you ever self diagnose online as well? A more professional term for self diagnosing is cyberchondriac. Anwar and Khan (2013) state “cyberchondriac is a term pertaining to a person who seeks health-related information on the Internet” (p.72). When self diagnosing online, people tend to search their symptoms and focus on the worst possibilities. This may lead people to feeling anxiety over their current health status.

      A hands on activity that this group assigned to the class was having us read a case study about a young boy with certain symptoms he was experiencing. Each group from the class was given a social media account to research these symptoms and see what results we came across. The variety of predictions that the class stumbled upon made me realize how many possibilities of findings there were to this specific case and how this is a non effective method of research. When looking up symptoms online, one should remember that not each answer is the accurate one and a check up to the doctor would be required to confirm these assumptions.

      During class lecture there was an activity where groups were able to choose a health topic and explore it on a social media site of our choice. I chose to look up chickenpox on YouTube. From the comments on various videos I came across, I was able to read on peoples personal experiences with this health issue and the advice they were giving to the public. This is evidence-informed advice as it incorporates peoples personal experiences and understandings.

      A new model was introduced to me during this weeks lecture, the Honeycomb model. Kietzmann, Hermkens, McCarthy and Silvestre (2011) describe the honeycomb as the “constructs that allow us to make sense of how different levels of social media functionality can be configured” (p.243). The honeycomb is separated into 7 sections: Presence, sharing, conversations, groups, reputation, relationships and identity. 

      During an activity in class, my group was assigned the social media site Flickr to examine based on these 7 sections. What I understood from this is that different social medias play specific roles for viewers. This may be support such as emotional, instrumental (financial or practical), informational or appraisal (Khalili, 2013). This has made me explore what my role as a nurse would be related to providing online health information and when working with clients who research online. I believe a nurse should be educated on what makes a source reliable, so that when patients come in, a nurse is able to direct them to credible and accurate websites. As social media is expanding, more sites are being created that provide health information. It would be beneficial for clients to know which online sites they can rely on.

References

Anwar, S., & Khan, S. (2013). Risks of online self-diagnosing: Cyberchondriacs. British   

      Columbia Medical Journal, 55(2), 72-73.

Gulzar, S., Khoja, S., & Sajwani, A. (2013). Experience of nurses with using eHealth in Gilgit-

      Baltistan, Pakistan: a qualitative study in primary and secondary healthcare. BMC Nursing,   

      12(1), 6-11. doi:10.1186/1472-6955-12-6

 Khalili, H. (2013). Health informatics within nursing; Week 6 consumer health informatics and

      eHealth – cont’d [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from    

      https://www.fanshaweonline.ca/d2l/le/content/574917/viewContent/2970570/View

Kietzmann, J. H., Hermkens, K., McCarthy, I. P., & Silvestre, B. S. (2011). Social media? Get

      serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media. Business Horizons,

      54(3), 241–251. doi:10.1016/j.bushor.2011.01.005

Should We Be Able To Access Our Health Information Online?

     As a class we had a debate on whether clients/patients should have online access to their personal health information. I was on the ‘con’ side of this debate. After hearing both sides and their arguments, I am still unsure whether I agree or disagree with this topic. In Confidentiality and Privacy-Personal Health Information (2009), “the legislation recognizes that personal health information belongs to clients and is simply being housed in health care facilities” (Canadian Nurses Association, p.6). This is a quote that the ‘pro’ side used to back up their opinions. Allowing clients access to health information will aid them in making informed decisions about their health. The ‘pro’ side also emphasized that this will promote patients in being partners with health professionals when it comes to their care. I somewhat disagree with this statement. I believe that once patients are able to access their own health information from home, this will limit their dependency on health professionals and diminish the amount of person-to-person contact. In Canadian Fundamentals of Nursing, Potter and Perry (2010) state how “establishing presence with a client enhances your ability to learn form the client, which enhances nursing care” (p.271). Once this is gone, nursing will change, and patients may no longer feel the need to visit their health professionals. Some more points to back up the ‘con’ side is the inequality that may arise due to the fact that some people do not have access to computers or the literacy skills. Doctors also use more complex words that may confuse patients and arise worry. There is always a risk of hackers accessing personal information when using online-based technology. Lastly, according to the CNO (2009), there is “possible grounds for refusing access, including that it may present a risk of serious harm to the treatment or recovery of the client” (p.6). With this in mind, there is also certain information such as someone’s mental health, where if patients were to see this, it could add on anxiety. Having to sort out this type of information and deciding what to post online takes up valuable time. In order for myself to choose a side on this topic, I would need a physical representation of what this online health record looks like. My first thought on this topic was, is this site reliable? Will clients need to use passwords to login? Or would I type in my health card number?  

What do you think? Which side of this debate would you agree with? Leave a comment and let me know! 

     I came across this image on Google, which then led me to a Toronto Digital Journal website. The reason why I want to share this image onto my blog is because it visually displays a representation of Canadian consumers and their stance on whether patients should have full access, limited access or no access to their electronic medical records. From this data, I can see that 50% of these consumers would switch physicians in order to gain access to their records. Also, majority of these consumers (76%) believe they should have full online access to their health information. 

Here's the full link http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/1499487

References

College of Nurses of Ontario. (2009). Confidentiality and Privacy-Personal Health Information.   

   Retrieved from http://www.cno.org/Global/docs/prac/41069_privacy.pdf

Perry, A. (2010). Caring in Nursing Practice. In P.A. Potter, A. G. Perry, J. C. Ross-Kerr & M.J. 

   Wood. Canadian Fundamentals of Nursing. (pp. 265 – 275) (4^th ed. Revised). Toronto: CAN, 

   Elsevier Canada.

How Do I Find a Reliable Source?

     This weeks group presentation incorporated a video as well as a case study to show us what reliable web sources look like and how to find them. In their study, they described a scenario of a 60-year-old man, whom had just come home from a walk and is now experiencing excessive sweating, fatigue, trouble breathing and nausea. As apart of our small groups, we were asked to search his symptoms online and see what sources we came across. The website I first landed on was WebMD, which opened a page based on heart disease according to the symptoms I typed into Google. This website I found did turn out to be reliable according to the pointers this group had included in their presentation. These pointers include the website having an “about us” tab, expert authors, an email or number to contact them through, advertisements, funding and up to date information. These are the reasons why I am sure the website I chose for this study was highly reliable. After class, I decided to go back onto this site to see what else it offered. I found it very interesting as I saw that it incorporates a section that allows you to make your own health folder. This is where you add any symptoms you are experiencing and then the site gives you the possible conditions you may have relating to your entries.  Everything stays in your folder, which you can open up and look back on for reference. This site truly has so much to offer, so be smart when self diagnosing yourself online and check out this website! 

http://symptoms.webmd.com/default.htm#introView

     My professor showed a video to the class this week, in which a man explained the importance of how online health information could save lives, including his. In his video, this man explains his story of how he was cured of kidney cancer. There were a few web sources this man described using in his search of symptoms. It was really neat to find out that he had used the same WebMD site that I had just found in class that week. 

Consumer Health Informatics and eHealth

     Consumer health informatics and eHealth was the topic for Week 5. What this means is the movement of people being able to access their health information using technologies available to them. The focus of this class was to make sense that technology is being modified and that health information is continuously changing the way it is being presented.