The following is a post by Stephen Texeira.

The Pew Research Center, as part of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, announced the results of a new study yesterday, and we would all be well advised to pay close attention. The headline, which you may already have seen reads, “61% of American Adults Look Online for Health Information.” That’s a lot of Americans, and chances are pretty good that it’s higher in your community. Here’s why. If you read through the full report, you’ll see that the percentage is higher for women (64 percent are online looking for health information, as opposed to 57 percent of men); college graduates (85 percent) or those with some college (74 percent); and those with household incomes above $50,000 (79 percent) and $75,000 (82 percent). 

These e-patients, as Pew calls them, have some interesting patterns. For instance 41 percent of those e-patients, “have read someone else’s commentary or experience about health or medical issues on an online newsgroup, website or blog.” Interesting? I think it’s actually much more than that. Let’s take a typical city in this country and see what that means. Davis, California has a population of 60,964 (2006 US Census bureau estimate), of which approximately 48,000 are over 18 years of age; approximately 40,000 of whom have a bachelor’s degree or higher (okay, clearly not typical, it is, after all, a college town); and has a median household income of $42,454 (probably also atypical because of being a college town). So what does this mean? Well, 85 percent of college grads are searching online for health information, in Davis that means 34,000 residents. Of those, 41 percent are essentially reading blogs or websites to see what somebody else thought of a particular clinic, doctor or hospital. That’s translates into almost 14,000 people out of population of 48,000 adults, nearly one in three. So for those doctors and hospitals serving that community, be aware that one in three of your patients is reading reviews of you (or looking for them and not finding them as the case may be) before they visit you. 

One in three. Think about it, even if you aren’t in Davis providing health care services think about it. One in three of your patients is probably reading what somebody else says about you. Are you? Are you online reading what people are saying about your clinic? Your hospital? Your practice? If not, your patients are more educated than you are . . . about you. So are you:

1. Nervous?
2. Scared?
3. Motivated to do something about it?
4. All of the above?

There’s a lot more in the report and I strongly urge all of you to read it. Failure to do so is unacceptable.