Implications of E-Health Program Evaluation - Essay Example

Running Head: E-HEALTH PROGRAM EVALUATION Implications of e-Health and e-Health Program Evaluation s Implications of e-Health and e-Health Program Evaluation Introduction The e-health has become a key contributor to health care industry, from researching personal health issues to asking a doctor for advice. At present, there is a lot of internet websites that can utilized in order to gain health related information. Everything from researching as well as placing orders for prescription medications, to learning regarding disease, or even having a conversation online with trained medical doctors can be now done by the internet. The method of delivering health care has altered dramatically because of building of hospitals, developments in the field of surgery, and the improvement in the internet. In the past 10 years there has been a major shift in the Health Care industry due to the rise of internet health care services (Barnes etal 2003). Before the internet, if health problems were to arise in an individual, he/she was generally taken care of in the doctor's office or by home remedies. If any questions were to arise about the health of yourself or others, the expertise of a doctor or nurse was generally needed. WebMD The WebMD health website is a website that has been designed to answer the questions about anything from medications to illnesses and can easily be obtained in a matter of seconds. Also, being able to communicate with the doctors or order prescriptions online has proved to be a huge advantage. In the next few paragraphs, the advantages of WebMD services and its impact on the health care industry will be discussed. Researching Medications Online WebMD has been a huge advantage to the health care industry for many reasons, one being the use of the WebMD to research medications. WebMD that contain information on any thing from medications and their uses to finding out about diseases and their causes. Everything about a drug is listed from what illnesses the drug treats down to its structural formula. Studies show that 71.5% of people who used WebMD health care to do research felt more knowledgeable about their illness and the medications they were taking (Paasche-Orlow etal 2005). Researching Illnesses WebMD.com may be utilized as an extremely resourceful web page to seek illnesses. Any question that the user has regarding an illness or disease is answered. This access to information is very good for people who do not understand their illness and its side effects. For instance, when a doctor informs the patient about their illness, many patients do not understand the doctor's terminology. With WebMD.com, the patient is able to do further research about their illness in words and phrases they can understand. Communicating with Doctors Online The WebMD is becoming an important alternative for patients and health care providers to share information with one another. The patient is now able to email or chat with the doctor about any questions they may have, as well as the doctor being able to inform the patient of any new medications or alternative medicine that will help the healing process. Financial Ramifications The financial ramifications of implementing the planned scope of practice will be more than enough . More than the expected increased costs of training at the complex levels, the likelihood for reimbursement for a number of the new components of the scope of practice in the majority Webmed services do not reimburse for their various services . First Responders cannot attain reimbursement. To make a new level always is in need of huge investment in time as well as cost and then not be capable enough to be reimbursed for Webmed sservices is a major issue . Opportunities for the WebMD in Healthcare Clearly, one of the benefits of the WebMD is its ability to provide real-time communications with doctors without having to transport patients to and from the doctor's office. This also helps with expenses associated with office visits. Of course, the quality of the services rendered over the WebMD is a big concern for patients and doctors at this point in time. One of the key concerns is the possibility of websites giving out false information on questions asked about the health of a person. This is why only official, or approved, websites should be used to retrieve health information. Ordering Prescriptions Online Another advantage is the use of the WebMD to order prescriptions or refills on prescriptions. For instance, if you keep in contact with your doctor via emails, it is a time saver for the doctor to prescribe medications without the patient having to come into the office. Also, being able to get on official pharmacies web-sites that patients use to order refills is a time saver. However, there are websites that illegally sell medications or counterfeit medications to places around the world. There have been many investigations focused on private practices in different countries that are making millions selling medications online without a prescription. Only official, or approved, websites like WebMD should be used to get prescriptions filled. There are many groups now that are trying to take that step and are pushing hard for healthcare providers to exercise a great deal of caution when they utilize the WebMD to render services. There are groups that have set a code of ethics for WebMD to follow. Some of these groups are as follows: the Internet Healthcare Coalition (IHC), which introduced an eHealth Code of Ethics, American Medical Association, the Health on the Net Foundation (HON), and Health Internet Ethics (Hi-Ethics). Other groups, such as the American Accreditation HealthCare Commission (URAC), offer validation programs and seals of approval that let consumers know specific web sites that follow ethical guidelines. WebMD is an advantage to patients wanting to find doctors, review their profiles, evaluate their abilities, and schedule appointments. Being able to find the right doctor with credibility makes the patient feel more comfortable and secure. WebMD is a huge advantage for patients and doctors alike. Being able to look up an illness or medication and learn everything about it not only comforts the patient and helps them understand what's wrong with them, it is also good for the doctor to research and learn more to help treat his patients better. WebMD health care services have also had an impact on health care in general and the way it is carried out. In my opinion, WebMD health care services are very beneficial to society . Official health care sites would not only help the people who need it, the sites would continue to cause an upward spiral in the health care industry (Neuhauser & Kreps 2003). Disadvantages of WebMD Health Care Usage by the Elderly Although health care on the WebMD may be beneficial in many ways, it also has some serious drawbacks. A challenge of WebMD health care is the use of the internet by the elderly. Users of Medicare who are more than sixty five years of age are a target group for utilizing WebMD. Generally this may not look like much of an issue. But it is. This group does not use the internet. They usually do not have computers, and definitely do not use the internet. The internet is used by the government as a means of informing participants of choices available to them. One of the new options available to WebMD participants is a drug discount card. Using WebMD's website is the easiest way to sort through all of the different cards to find the one that best suits each participant as an individual. Putting Medicare on the WebMD is essentially hurting the elderly. They are not able to enjoy the benefits of the resource, therefore WebMD advantages should be made available through some other means that is more accessible to the elderly (Kreuter etal 2000). Doctor-Patient Relationship Another reason healthcare on the WebMD is not good has to do with its effect on doctor-patient relationships. To demonstrate, here is a hypothetical situation: Cindy uses the WebMD to research symptoms she is experiencing. Cindy is able to find an illness that is supposedly the cause of her symptoms using various websites available to her on the WebMD. Cindy then continues to research the prescription drugs that should be used to cure this illness. After this research is complete, Cindy visits a physician. Many things could now happen. One situation, Cindy could refuse examination, and instead, insist the physician prescribe drugs "A," "B," and "C," for the illness, "XYZ," she found on the WebMD during her research. Not to say Cindy is incorrect about the diagnosis and the drugs needed to treat that illness, but how can a physician know. He or she must perform the tests necessary to be sure the correct ailment is diagnosed. This could put a rift in the relationship of this doctor patient for many different reasons. Cindy could choose to see a different physician, completely eliminating the existing relationship, or when Cindy refused examination, the physician could develop a negative feeling toward Cindy. Too Much Information As with most of the information on the WebMD, much of the information regarding health care is disorganized. There is more information out there than most people need. This problem makes people look for information blindly without seeing if weather what they are looking for is what they need. Lack of accuracy Another problem with WebMD health care is its lack of accuracy. There is no means of finding out if the information you are looking at is credible. This problem has been recently addressed by the Health Improvement Institute in an effort to try to come up with a solution. Not only is there too much information to even know where to begin regulating it, but it would be a very costly task to take on by the government. Some of the other problems that occur from lack of accreditation include the health risks associated with wrong information. The task of monitoring these health care sites to make certain they are certified and that they keep up their accreditation would be very hard to manage (Houston & Allison 2002). However, there were quite a few solutions that this workshop came to agree upon, such as needs of a system to tell truth from fraud, allowing consumers to find out about WebMD and industry standards and accreditation of internet producers. Ethics issues at stake Also connected with the problem of accuracy is a potential problem due to a lack of accreditation. This creates a risk to the patient by not ensuring the privacy of online health care. When someone looks up something health care related, as well as anything else on the WebMD, they leave a trail that can easily be accessed by anyone with a computer and a little time. This presents a problem because an insurance company can also check what websites someone has looked at, and it could jeopardize an insurance policy if the provider thinks that you may have a pre-existing condition. However this may be at stake but WebMD, along with the other health care Web sites, would be among the first companies to develop industry-led ethical standards and privacy protections for users of popular health sites. The guidelines also require that online sites plainly mark advertising as such. This would help inform consumers, for example, that a section of a medical Web site devoted to treating asthma was sponsored by a company that produces asthma medications. The Hi-Ethics group was using a chain of trust' policy to bind all third parties and advertisers to each company's privacy agreements. So in nut shell there are no ethical issues at stake only possibilities. (www.thehindubusinessline.com/businessline/2000/05/14/stories/141439c6.htm). Conclusion In the 21st century healthcare has under gone a massive transformation , its latest advancement is of e-healthcare . every thing from prescriptions to doctor's advice can be found on the internet. Websites such as Webmed play an important role in this kind of healthcare. This website is one of the best ways of gaining knowledge about diseases. Thus it is safe to say that now healthcare is easily available on the internet, now life has become really easy one does not have to hospital or clinics for minor ilinness. References Barnes MD, Penrod C, Neiger BB, Merrill RM, Thackeray R, Eggett DL, et al (2003); Measuring the relevance of evaluation criteria among health information seekers on the Internet. Journal of Health Psychology 8:71-82. Houston TK, Allison JJ (2002);. Users of Internet health information. Journal of Medical Internet Research 4(2):e7. Kreuter M, Farrell D, Olevitch L, Brennan L (2000); Tailoring health messages: customizing communication with computer technology. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, Neuhauser L, Kreps GL (2003); Rethinking communication in the e-health era. Journal of Health Psychology;8(1):7-23. Paasche-Orlow MK, Parker RM, Gazmararian JA, Nielsen-Bohlman LT, Rudd RR (2005); The prevalence of limited health literacy. Journal of General Internal Medicine;20:175-84. www.thehindubusinessline.com/businessline/2000/05/14/stories/141439c6.htm retrieved on 19 September 2008 Appendix Read More