Evaluation of Web 2.0 tool

Running Head: - Evaluation of a Web 2.0 Tool

Nursing Informatics: Consumer Informatics and Communications

Evaluation of a Web 2.0 Tool- RWJUH Facebook and Twitter Page.

Biji Iype

Professor- Dr. Eme Ukot

April 28^th 2014

                                                                          

                                                                         Abstract

                                                      Web 2.0 Tools are a category of internet tools and technologies designed to enhance the way consumers (patients) access and customize media and technology for their own purpose. As use of web 2.0 tools becomes all pervasive, how can health and social care services embrace the technological, sociological and cultural changes to form part of the future of healthcare information? Web 2.0 is a new and revolutionary technology that is taking over healthcare, allowing for consumers to interact with data available to them. Social networking and other collaborative tools are bringing patients together to discuss their health and healthcare. It's a move towards citizen centered information, which is in line with the government's philosophy. Web 2.0 can help meet certain areas of the vision for the future of health information and open up new opportunities, but it brings challenges too.

  

Introduction

Web 2.0 Tools are a category of internet tools and technologies designed to enhance the way consumers access and customize media and technology for their own purpose. The term web 2.0, coined in 2004 by O'Reilly, is about using the tools of the web to make the internet a more collaborative place. They include blogs, wikis, Wikipedia, podcasts, mash-ups, and social networking sites. Web 2.0 can put patients in control. It's about the individual and what you can do on the computer, and about virtual communities making use of the internet. Web 2.0 has a clear role in empowering patients, who would be able to use these tools to access online services, information and communities at a time and place to suit them. Patients can use the tools to create the social communities that they want, giving guidance and peer group support in their own language. On chronic illness, published research shows that there are benefits from social interaction, blogs, wikis and social spaces. Web 2.0 is ideal for bringing together geographically dispersed communities, facilitating global collaboration.                                                                                                                                                             

                                       Criteria’s for evaluating a Web 2.0 Tool 

•          Accessibility: The accessibility is very important when you consider a tool for consumers. If it is easy to use, it is more likely that everybody will start using it and update it when it is needed. The accessibility should be free. The webpage for RWJUH is easy to access and within one click the Facebook and twitter page opens which is on the right upper corner of the main page and anybody can join and get information about the topic you are looking for in the same page. Another question consumer will ask to themselves is that, does anything have to be downloaded and installed on the computer to use the tool? The access should be with all the windows users, otherwise consumers will find difficult to get certain windows for the same access. Is there any cost to join this page or tool? If it is free and easy to join, more consumers will use it.

•          How Easy is the learning or the education provided or is it current: If the information on the website is easy to understand and learn, the consumers are going to use it regularly and try to learn and follow what says at the site. If it is easy to look for a doctor through the website and find the right doctor, they will use the RWJUH Facebook and twitter page. The information should be current and up to date when it comes to healthcare. The consumer will look a help section for the tool. The consumers will enjoy the tool if there is some fun factor associated with this learning.

•          Is it helping to improve the communication and relationship? Is this tool helping the consumer to improve communication and to keep the relationship? The consumers can easily get in touch with any doctors or any providers and read any information from the doctors or the hospital providers. If you click on any doctor’s information, it will open up the details and experiences of the doctor.

•          Security: if the site security is good and well encrypted, the consumers will trust the site and use it for their health related questions and communications. But these websites will give information about health but the RWJUH site does not provide any patient information as it is against HIPAA rule.

•          Contents involved in the tool: contents involved in the site should be current and appropriate for the consumers. It has to be reliable information. Twitter page gives us the information regarding recent programs available regarding health. It gives us the information regarding any learning programs. In the Facebook page you can review everybody’s experience with the hospital about the procedures, surgeries or certain units.

                                                                     

                                                                        Conclusion

The information in the website should be useful to each and every consumer. On the other hand, most people are generally good at sensing which sources on the internet are reliable. An un-moderated free for all could provide a counterpart to the professionalism that is also needed. Plus, there are so many good groups in the voluntary service, while it could be argued that the government and NHS are about control and metrics, which doesn’t improve health. In conclusion, web 2.0 appears to offer various benefits, but how the NHS and HI profession should be involved and use them is not so clear cut. Given the potential of these tools, however, it is worth considering how they could fit into the future of healthcare and of health information.

Consumer Health Informatics and Personal Health Records

Consumer Health Informatics and Personal Heath Records

     Consumer Assessment and Personal Health Records (PHRs) 

                                            .     

                          Questions asked to the Consumers

·         Gender

·         Age

·          Educational level

·         Did they have health insurance?

·          What is their socio-economic status?

·         Do you use the Internet to access health information? And what types of information they look up from the internet?

·         Do you have Internet access at home or a Smartphone?

·         What sites they use more frequently and how they determine that site is trusted

·         How many of you know about personal health record? And how many of you have a personal health record?

·         Why should I have a personal health record?

·         What you do in personal health record?

·         How often they use it and are it really helping you achieves any of your goals.

           Rationale for the questions and the result of the interview

            

               The world and the internet are changing how individuals gather healthcare information and have helped the population to foster the consumer healthcare movement. The above questions were asked to find out how many of them uses internet for health related matters and what is their background and the socio economic status of each consumer. Few questions were asked to find out the reasons for using the internet for maintaining their health and how it is helping them and how easier is to keep track and maintain the PHRs.  From this interview and other studies I learned that many consumers are using PHRs and most of them use internet for health related matters. It is easily understood that it is very easy to use a PHRs and maintain it. Especially the young generation is using internet for all their related matters. They find it easier to maintain the information in the computer than papers.

                Personal health record (PHR) is a record of information about our health. In PHRs, we can control the health information and we can get to it anywhere at any time through the Internet. PHRs use secure technology to protect our information from unauthorized use. Access to PHRs requires us to set up a unique user ID and password. Once we log in, we can determine who can see our information. We can use a PHR to keep track of information from our healthcare visits, lab tests, allergies, and childhood immunizations, prescription doses, past surgeries and diagnoses, and family medical history. Over-the-counter drug use and refills, health promotion activities such as exercise and diet routines, as well as track your personal health goals and priorities. The New York Times recently reported that only about 20 percent of Americans have computerized health records rather than paper ones, despite many health organizations providing free online personal health records to its members

                                

              According to these above interview questions, the results are as follows,

·         Gender – Women use computer more than men for health reasons and maintaining a personal health record.

·         Age- I used aged 23-45 years old consumers and 80% of them use internet for health problems and with questions. But only 40% of them use personal health record.

·          Educational level- most of them had their maters level education in computers and related engineering (70%) and 30% had bachelor’s degree.

·         Did they have health insurance?- all of them had health insurance

·          What is their socio economic status? They all from medium level of socioeconomic status.

·         Do you use the Internet to access health information? And what types of information they look   up from the internet? All of them use internet for any kind of health questions. Most of them use it for finding doctors and to get further information about health problems and medicines.  

·         Do you have Internet access at home or a Smartphone? - All of them had internet access at home. 80% have smart phone, I pad or any kinds of tablet to track their health.

·         What sites they use more frequently and how they determine that site is trusted. – Most of them use webmd.com site for further information. They trust each site according to the security provided by the site. They look at the publishers. If it is by the reputed doctors or any facility, they use those websites.

·         How many of you know about personal health record? -And how many of you have a personal health record? 60% knew about personal health records and all of them started making personal health records. But 40% were using the PHRs and frequently updating it for doctor’s visits and prescriptions (auto refill).

·         Why should I have a personal health record? 60% knew about the importance of making a personal health record and 40% were using it. They use it to easily collect, store and maintain lifelong personal health information. They also use it to share relevant information with the referred medical persons.

·         What you do in personal health record? They use PHRs for maintaining the doctor’s visits and medications. They usually track their weights and the daily food intake with personal health record.

·         How often they use it and is it really helping you achieves any of your goals? 40% of those who maintaining their PHRs use it regularly ad update it as it happens. They are achieving their goals by tracking their current health information via PHRs.  They use PHRs to maximize the health benefits.

Thank You for reading my blog. I am still new to using blogger. Any suggestions very well appreciated.

Biji George