Bridging the Information Gap for Ulcerative Colitis Patients

Nearly all humans, throughout the course of their life, have been diagnosed with everything from a mild cold, to a viral infection, or perhaps a diagnosis of a chronic condition. Upon experiencing symptoms, patients are exposed to a plethora of information. The Internet holds home remedies, for those wary of the doctor\u27s office, or there are advice boards where people share their experiences, trials, and tribulations. In some cases, the doctor is the purveyor of the information and written materials are sent home with the patient dictating the regimen to follow to achieve wellness. However, some patients, particularly ulcerative colitis patients, find themselves without these written materials and without access to health information specifically tailored to their needs. Patients must forage for information while trying to maintain their health after diagnosis. This study explores the holes in the information-sharing process through interviews and surveys, focusing specifically on patients, technical medical writers, and gastroenterologists. The study finds most ulcerative colitis patients do not receive the information they need

Online patient education design features: are there any differences in opinion based on consumer’s stage of change?

Abstract: Patients’ stage of change towards their disease management plays an important role in healthcare. The aim of this study is to explore whether there are any differences in the patients’ perceptions toward the design features of online patient education according to the patients’ stages of change. Patients and carers who use chronic disease websites from Australia were invited to participate in the study to understand their perspectives on the design features. The statistical analysis package for the social science 19.0 (SPSS 19.0) and Smart PLS were used to perform statistical analysis for answering the research questions and related hypotheses. The results indicated that the patients’ perceptions tended to differ in terms of online patient education design features, interpretability and presentation of content, according to their stages of change. The patients, across different stages of change, did have differing perceptions regarding certain constructs within the online patient education design features

Washington University Record, February 7, 2008

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