Jessica Hogue
My colleague Melissa Davies published findings earlier this year on the role of the Internet in healthcare, which found that while doctors are still the primary source for healthcare information, the Internet is a close second. In this new era of collaborative care, patients have access to an array of online tools to arm them with more detailed information about their conditions and treatments than ever before. Specifically, social media vehicles are expanding and accelerating the pace at which patients and caregivers can gain access to drug treatment ratings. …

Melissa Davies
The Pew Internet & American Life Project today released the results of its latest survey into how and when Americans use the Internet to gather health information. In The Social Life of Health Information, Pew reports that Americans are turning to an increasingly broader array of online and offline resources in their search for health information.
Highlights from the report include:

83 percent of online adults have looked on the Web for health information. (Since 2002, Pew Internet Project surveys have consistently found that 75-83 percent of Internet users look online …

Melissa Davies
In the category of letting the customer tell you what the customer needs, Dell this week launched its new IdeaStorm for Healthcare and Life Sciences, an online community where users can share their best ideas for how technology can help improve the field of healthcare. Visitors to the site can vote on others’ ideas, bringing the best ones to the top for possible action by Dell. The idea list is sortable by most recent ideas, most popular ideas, and “Ideas in Action” that are being implemented as a result …