Wow. I'd love the answers to these questions as well!
David Keyes wrote:
This is an interesting discussion, though it may be an easier one to have as
a set of narrower questions on a web discussion.
I agree that the use of data, both qualitative and quantitative, would be
ultimately vital to determining impact and perhaps not enough as been done.
Just as important is defining the scope of questions. I see a number of
arenas for this. Human health is also broad. I leave that to health
experts, but perhaps this encompasses individual physical and mental health,
and then public health.
I also see some distinction between getting health info, getting info about
where to get health assistance, participatory health support activities, and
use of digital media to support creating health marketing materials, and use
of telecenters and digital media as a health prevention (and fitness and
public safety) activity.
Here are some of the areas of research I'd see on this topic from my
experience in community technology.
1) Does learning about health information online improve health?
2) Does participating in a health or disease-related support group improve
physical and/or mental health?
3) Does retrieving health info likely lead to its use and to a subsequent
impact? How is this different or complementary to information provided by
another source (friend, care provider, brochure)?
4) How many community technology/ telecentres are connecting residents with
health and fitness information? (e.g. I know of a group of seniors that use
the computer lab to retrieve walking maps for their exercise.)
5) If someone's knowledge of using a computer and the Internet increases,
does it increase their sense of self-sufficiency and control, and thereby
extend their life and quality of life? (There's an interesting potential
correlation to some research done in England finding that if seniors have a
greater sense of their choices and control, it results in extending their
lives.)
6) Does a social network, with an e-component (email, text, web), enhance a
consumer's access to health care provider and health information (that is
accurate)?
7) Does the production of content (e.g. writing about nutrition, your health,
mapping neighborhood air quality) lead to increased health awareness and
health?
8) What is the public safety impact of youth media programs?
This is all consumer sided vs provider sided (health professionals getting
access to exchanging data and best practices) and doesn't include potential
impact from health monitoring (remote testing/transmission on diabetes, blood
pressure, etc).
And of course all this takes money for research. I'd definitely like to see
more and how it gets indexed in the health and Internet/dig divide/ social
health journals.
- David
***
David Keyes
Director of Community Technology Programs
City of Seattle Department of Information Technology
PO Box 94709
Seattle, WA 98124-4709 USA
(206) 386-9759
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Fax (206) 684-0911
http://seattle.gov/tech/
Street address: 700 Fifth Ave. Suite 2700
Judith Green [EMAIL PROTECTED] 08/10/08 7:04 AM
Greetings,
The question of health care and the digital divide issues that are being
raised about knowing and data are central to discussions that are
happening in medical education and diagnosis communities. A recent book
http://www.amazon.com/Interprofessional-Family-Discourses-Knowledge-Processes/dp/1572734027/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8s=booksqid=1218309980sr=1-3
Interprofessional and Family Discourses: Voices, Knowledge and
Practice
(Language and Social Processes)
http://www.amazon.com/Interprofessional-Family-Discourses-Knowledge-Processes/dp/1572734027/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8s=booksqid=1218309980sr=1-3by
Marleen Iannucci McClelland and Roberta G. Sands, Hampton Press.
raises questions about how different disciplines within healthcare diagnose
patients and how voices are missing. This volume raises questions about
dialogues in a face2face and digital world that are central to understanding
areas of the digital divide that are often not visible. They also raise
questions about how parents are engaged in the dialogues and thus how
patients are able to access or enter information. This volume also proposes
a biosocial model that might be of interest to those involved in discussion
about health care and the digital divide.
This volume also address questions about what counts as knowing, research
and health care and how these are constructed through different lenses used
by different actors.
I see the questions that were raised, therefore, as interdependent with the
broader concern of this community.
Judith
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