The trends are undeniable. More and more people are going online for health information. With that in mind, Milner-Fenwick recently conducted its own survey to see the impact of the internet on patient education strategies by hospitals nationwide.

Over 200 patient educators and clinicians participated. The survey confirmed that educators are actively referring patients to online resources. Of those responding:

• almost 80% reported directing patients to websites for additional patient education material
• 60% of those directing patients to the web are referring patients to their own facility’s website and to other external sites
• 25% reported referring patients exclusively to sites outside of their organization.
• 92% felt that video would enhance patient education on their website
• 25% would e-mail video links to assist patients in their recovery at home.

The expanding patient education landscape

“There’s no question about it, technology is changing the way health content is being delivered,” said David Milner, President. “We found that patients are increasingly using the internet as a resource by Google-ing, YouTube-ing and Twittering on their own. They’re also asking providers where they can go online for more material.”

“The internet has considerably more influence over consumer health decisions and actions than traditional channels like print, TV and radio.” --Manhattan Research

However, there’s a down side. Web content is unregulated; anyone can publish anything on the internet. This makes it difficult for even savvy web surfers to distinguish between what is medically accurate and meets practice standards, and what is anecdotal or inaccurate.

“For educators wanting to direct patients to reliable information online, referring patients to their own facility’s website is the ideal solution,” says JoAnne Nabozny, Vice-President of Product Development. “It’s to an organization’s advantage to incorporate on their own site educational content they’ve carefully vetted instead of having patients go to another source.”

Video online

Nearly 95% of Milner-Fenwick’s survey participants expressed their belief that video has the potential to enhance the value of online health information. In addition, almost 90% agreed that they’d prefer to post links to short video segments on either the general information or clinical sections of their websites.

“For educators wanting to direct patients to reliable information online, referring patients to their own facility’s website is the ideal solution.”

“Every video clip in our new HealthClips video library is short, only about 3 minutes,” Milner says. “We can now give providers trusted, credible content they can direct patients to because HealthClips is specifically designed for web delivery.”

“This can transform their website into a clinical resource. By directing patients to pre-op and discharge information on their facility’s website, educators can extend care beyond hospital walls. They can also use wellness content as a vehicle for community outreach and promotion.”

If you’d like to learn more about how to select content on the web for your patients, the National Network of Libraries of Medicine offers a comprehensive online teaching resource, From Snake Oil to Penicillin: Evaluating Consumer Health Information on the Internet.