Grant: Catalyst Grant: Ethics

Very broadly, E-health is a relatively new term for healthcare practice involving electronic communication and the public. Use of the Internet has mushroomed over the past 20 years, and people are increasingly using it for health purposes in a range of ways, for both gaining factual information on medical sites, and sharing their experiences by "blogging." This relatively new development is rapidly changing the face of healthcare. People are becoming much more informed about health and disease issues, but on the other hand, are faced with enormous amounts of what is often contradictory information. The impact of Internet use in health as yet is unknown. Two opposing viewpoints are that (a) this is a positive process empowering people, or (b) e-health may be burdening people with tasks, responsibilities and expectations about what they should know and do when they are already facing the burden of illness, treatments and medical appointments (which for some is complicated by having more than one condition). So we need to know more about: How much the Internet supports people to live better lives with chronic illness; How may e-health change the patient-health care provider relationship? What are healthcare providers' views about e-health? Do patients feel able to share their knowledge with their health care provider? Using ethical principles as a backdrop, these are the sorts of questions we address in this study.