Pew Survey: Health Consumers Turn to the Web for Health Care and Health Insurance Information
Thursday Jun 11, 2009Pew Survey: Health Consumers Turn to the Web for Health Care and Health Insurance Information in General Healthcare
A new study released today by the Pew Research Center’s Internet
& American Life Project and the California HealthCare Foundation revealed
that 61% of all adults go online for health information, including getting health insurance quotes
and finding doctor reviews.
Gone are the days of limiting your health knowledge to your doctor and immediate circle. A few mouse clicks now grants us as much information as we can digest. And even at that point, online group forums, podcasts and email queries can make further sense of a subject. For health matters, this makes a big difference.
A whopping 42% of all adults say they or someone they know has been helped by health information found on the Internet. Even more impressive is how fast that number is rising: Just three years ago, only 25% reported finding useful help online.
We find these figures heartening — and logical. Whether you’re researching Medicare or shopping clinics, the health care landscape in general is going digital. Hospitals and insurance companies, such as Kaiser Permanente, are migrating to a mostly paperless operation, and in February, President Obama signed a stimulus bill that gives $19 billion to hospitals to invest in technology.
As The Wall Street Journal Health Blog points out, “the growth in mobile access has let people access and share health information on their own time,” which is another indicator that this trend will only increase in the future.
