Have you noticed you can put "e-" in front of just about anything, and we all know what that means? We do so much online today – (r)e-tail, e-zines, e-trading and e-banking. And now there’s e-patient.
New research says that 61 percent of us go online for health information from trusted websites. We research symptoms to see if we need to a doctor, and then look up the diagnosis and treatment after we go to the doctor. About one in five e-patients interact with each other online, comparing experiences to broaden their understanding at Patients Like Me or e-patients.net
Whether it’s a simple diagnosis or a complex life-changing condition, being an e-patient helps us be effective and educated about what we can do to support our own health. I’ve talked in this blog about my own experience with looking online and replacing prescription meds with over-the-counter remedies – it was really empowering to do that myself because these options weren’t on my doctor’s radar.
People with the most experience in the health care system – those with chronic conditions – are really active e-patients, because they know how hard it is to figure out the treatment routine that works for them. They have a lot of experience challenging the system and asking “why” and “how much.”
As we are all paying more for health care these days, here’s another online resource for the e-patient: our Cost Generator, so we can be prepared with the real price tag of medical procedures.
If you've got an e-patient story, please let us hear about it at our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/TheRealCost.
— Susan with Regence
