ABSTRACT
Consumers make health decisions on a daily basis. These include decisions about health care services, personal self-care products, and lifestyle choices. With increasing access to computers and the Internet, there has been growing demand among policymakers, advocacy groups, and large employers for the health-care system to adopt more quickly information technology solutions to address national concerns regarding health care quality, medical errors, and escalating health care costs. Consumers are increasingly relying on the Internet to access information and tools for decision support. The Internet has had a tremendous impact on many areas of consumer decision making. In the case of purchasing a car, 75 percent of consumers who purchase a car have researched the vehicle online before the purchase. Technology is increasingly recognized as an enabler of a consumer-centered health system. Consumer directed health plans have recently become available in response to the movement toward a consumer-centered health system.
