ABSTRACT
The Internet has been a driving force behind the continuing trend of consumer-centric healthcare by opening up the floodgates of consumer health information. About two-thirds of Internet users search for health information.2 However, an informed consumer is just the beginning. To be effective, health information needs to flow not just from institutions to patients but also from patients to healthcare providers, especially while patients are not in a care facility. In today’s healthcare system, whether or not the patient receives the right level of care depends heavily on where the person is. Patients usually get the attention they need as long as they are physically in a hospital, a physician’s office, or another professional care facility. As soon as they move out of these facilities, care providers lose touch with these patients, knowing little about what is going on with them and what care they might need. This problem becomes especially evident for people with chronic conditions (e.g., diabetics) and the elderly, who typically live normal lives at their own homes a majority of the time. In this case, the lack of timely information about the patient status and required interventions could lead to costly emergency room visits, hospitalization, and even death.
