Hospitals embrace the Internet

Chances are you have used the internet to search for more information about the obscure disease your uncle Joe contracted. Or maybe you've logged on to find out about a persistent pain in your wrist or to look for a medical specialist. Perhaps you've decided to give up smoking and were looking for inspiration. Whatever the quest, often the results are the same: frustrating. There are too many web sites to choose from and no way to evaluate which ones provide good, medically sound information. How reassuring it is, then, to go directly to a web site with a name you recognize, that of a highly respected hospital in your own city.

A study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that 80 percent of adult internet users look for health-related topics online. A majority of people in the study (63 percent) searched the internet for information about a specific disease or medical problem.

The second most popular health topic (searched by 43 percent) was information about a particular medical treatment or procedure. These are exactly the topics at which hospital web sites excel.

A name you can trust
Take the Brigham and Women's Hospital web site. Not only can you find detailed information about Uncle Joe's illness, you can also watch an animation showing a lower GI endoscopy that you will be undergoing next week. As a member of Partners Health-Care, Brigham and Women's-together with Massachusetts General Hospital and several community and specialty hospitals-shares the information on its web site will all its partners. Steven Baker, Partners director of marketing, says, "Even though the same healthcare content appears on each of our hospitals' web sites, each hospital can edit it and provide additional information. Brigham and Womens' web site can, for instance, add information about clinical trials or their innovative surgical procedures. From the reader's perspective this is seamless." Baker says, this is a trend in hospital web sites. Hospitals buy healthcare content from content providers and then customize it. In Partners' case, they contract with HealthGate, a company in Burlington that provides healthcare content to 700 hospitals. Bill Reece is the founder and CEO of the company. He finds the customizing by hospitals of the content his company provides to be very effective. "Hospitals can even go one step further. Patients view the hospital as a place they go to, but the direct relationship is really with the doctor. Hospitals can pass this kind of information on to micro-sites of doctors."

Caritas Carney Hospital in Dorchester is one hospital that recognizes the effectiveness of linking its healthcare information to its physicians. As part of the larger Caritas Christi Health Care system, the hospital web site links to the same Health-Gate-provided content, but it also features its own doctors. Says Patrice MacCune, their manager of marketing and community relations, "Our web site really grew out of a community newsletter we send out three times a year. The newsletter included a Q & A about health topics that was answered by our physicians. Now we do this on our web site."

The doctor weighs in
In an easy-to-read, chatty style, a physician answers questions like: "What happens when someone doesn't get enough sleep?" And, "What is the correct way to use an inhaler?" "As a community hospital, we feel that a personal connection is important," says McCune. "Our physicians really wanted to be involved in this. As we have been adding materials, we're finding that our hits are going up." According to Bill Reece, hospitals have been slow to realize the enormous advantages of the internet. "At first, the attitude was: Well, let's have a web site, everybody has one, so we'll have one. It was not much more than a simple marketing tool. Now hospitals are utilizing the internet to educate patients in all kinds of ways."

Steven Baker of Partners sees other trends, with hospitals providing e-newsletters on various subjects, as well as health-management tools. Reece says these types of communications are particularly effective for patients who need to stay in close contact with their healthcare provider. In the future, for example, a diabetic patient would be able to follow his blood sugar levels online.