Unable to obtain the online advice they seek from their own docs, e-patients by the millions are discovering a new breed of online health professionals who are only too happy to hear from them. But their electronic interactions with these virtual providers are strikingly different from their face-to-face encounters with their own physicians. In one of the most important and unexpected developments in Information Age healthcare, the Net is giving rise to an entirely new type of provider-patient relationship.  [ ... more]

Sites 2B Seen Award: Danny's Clinical Use of E-mail Page Danny Sands, at Harvard's Center for Clinical Computing and Boston's Beth Israel Hospital, receives our first "Sites 2B Seen Award" for this excellent site which offers a central source of constantly-updated information for providers who would like to communicate with their patients online.  [ ... more] Distinguished Achievement Award: gomez.com Gomez.com provides consumer ratings of e-brokers, e-banks, and e-commerce sites (e.g., autos, books, furniture, toys, etc.). Gomez staffers have now turned their attention to online health. They now rate three categories of online health resources: Health Portal Sites ("Health Content"), Virtual Pharmacies ("Prescriptions"), and health-related e-commerce ("Health and Wellness").  [ ... more]		Doctom's FAQ: What is Consumer Health Informatics? Q. I've been hearing a lot about 'consumer health informatics' recently and have heard that it was you who first defined the field. How did this term originate? And how should it be used? A. As far as I can tell--and I'd welcome input from others on this--I came up with the term Consumer Health Informatics in 1993, when my colleagues by Don Kemper, Bill Hettler, and I organized a conference which brought together some of the early pioneers who were developing IT systems designed to be used by health consumers. That conference, "Consumer Health Informatics: Bringing the Patient into the Loop," took place on July 16-18, 1993, in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. It was sponsored by Healthwise, Inc., and the National Wellness Association.  [ ... more]

News & Gossip:
The TFR 'Bright Ideas' Contest

Thanks for the many interesting news items, journal article summaries, speculative white papers, recommended books and Web sites, provocative proposals, and other e-mailed goodies you've been sending our way. These have been so useful and thought-provoking that we've decided to offer an award for the most interesting and intriguing 'Bright Ideas' we receive.  [ ... more]