TY  - JOUR
AU  - Schwitzer, Gary
PY  - 2002
DA  - 2002/11/22
TI  - A Review of Features in Internet Consumer Health Decision-support Tools
JO  - J Med Internet Res
SP  - e11
VL  - 4
IS  - 2
KW  - decision making
KW  - informatics
KW  - Internet
KW  - multimedia
KW  - social support
KW  - treatment outcome
KW  - prognosis
AB  - Background: Over the past decade, health care consumers have begun to benefit from new Web-based communications tools to guide decision making on treatments and tests. Using today's online tools, consumers who have Internet connections can: watch and listen to videos of physicians; watch and hear the stories of other consumers who have faced the same decisions; join an online social support network; receive estimates of their own chances of experiencing various outcomes; and do it all at home. Objective: To review currently-available Internet consumer health decision-support tools. Methods: Five Web sites offering consumer health decision-support tools are analyzed for their use of 4 key Web-enabled features: the presentation of outcomes probability data tailored to the individual user; the use of videotaped patient interviews in the final product to convey the experiences of people who have faced similar diagnoses in the past; the ability to interact with others in a social support network; and the accessibility of the tool to any health care consumers with an Internet connection. Results: None of the 5 Web sites delivers all 4 target features to all Web users. The reasons for these variations in the use of key Web functionality — features that make the Web distinctive — are not immediately clear. Conclusions: Consumers trying to make health care decisions may benefit from current Web-based decision-support tools. But, variations in Web developers' use of 4 key Web-enabled features leaves the online decision-support experience less than what it could be. Key research questions are identified that could help in the development of new hybrid patient decision-support tools. 
SN  - 1438-8871
UR  - http://www.jmir.org/2002/2/e11/
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.4.2.e11
UR  - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12554558
DO  - 10.2196/jmir.4.2.e11
ID  - info:doi/10.2196/jmir.4.2.e11
ER  -