Search

Because of improved survival rates and medical prospects, the emphasis in care for preterm infants has shifted in recent years to a focus on support for the wellbeing of children and their families. For the healthcare professionals the parents of these children are the main partners for improving the care of their children. In this context, referring to 'patient empowerment' implies not only the infant but also the parents, in other words 'parent empowerment'. We aimed to explore parents' experiences with hospital and aftercare for their preterm children, and the implications for parent empowerment, by organizing face-to-face (n = 4 and n = 7) and online (n = 14) focus group interviews with parents of preterm children. These focus group interviews showed that these parents indicated a lack of support and recognition of parental worries in the care for their infant during two important periods: (1) the transfer to another hospital and (2) after discharge home. These group interviews showed that parents greatly value initiatives that support and empower them in their role as parents and that strengthens their involvement in the care for their children. Requirements for enhancing parent empowerment are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Home rehabilitation after a hip operation can be daunting for the elderly. Lack of motivation to exercise and being insecure in the recovery process are common barriers. Personalized eHealth can help to ensure that the patient exercise efficiently, filling the gap between treatment in the practice with the physical therapist and practice at home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Internet is nowadays a powerful medium and can help patients to become better-informed citizens. Increasingly, citizens are searching for health information on the Internet. The Internet-based resource often acts as a virtual healthcare professional. The effectiveness of the communication between the patient and the virtual healthcare professional depends partly upon the presence of contextual information. The issue here is to what extent the contextualization of information is needed for effective information seeking and for the person's understanding of the retrieved/received information. The impact of contextualization on information search also closely relates to the person's cognitive resources. Using a theoretical communication framework (Te'eni 2001), we explore contextualization in a health website, and discuss the above issues and the possible relevance of contextualized information on the informed patient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Information about health prevention can contribute to the awareness and the knowledge of consumers and patients about their own health. Messages originating from other users (cases) can be perceived as more credible and hence more persuasive. With this in mind, we have developed an informative website called SeniorGezond, which includes a case-based tailoring component, in the domain area of fall incidences. Objectives: To investigate whether the use of cases is suitable for presenting and tailoring educative health information; and to gain insights in the user's opinion about the use of cases to provide tailored preventive information. Methods: We conducted a qualitative study using questionnaires, focus group discussions, interviews, and observations. Participants were elderly, family caregivers and healthcare professionals. Results: Users were able to find relevant cases for their problems, but had a mixed reaction on the usefulness and appreciation of the cases. Conclusions: There is a need for a delicate balance between a recognizable story with all the important health information and good readable and concise information. A good text structure is required to support this. While cases do have potential in health education, further research is needed in order to identify the necessary requirements which will make the cases successful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents information on a study that examined the challenges in telemedicine and its potential impact on healthcare. Definition of telemedicine; Evolution of telemedicine services; Examples of projects that addressed the need for a computer-based patient record model and mapping between clinical terminologies.

Objective: E-health may enable the empowerment process for patients, particularly the chronically ill. However, e-health is not always designed with the requirements of patient empowerment in mind. Drawing on evidence-based e-health studies, we propose directions for best practices to develop e-health that promotes patient empowerment., Methods: The concept of patient empowerment in the Dutch setting is discussed first. The prerequisites for patient empowerment are then described and translated into empowerment areas relevant to e-health., Materials: We reviewed Dutch e-health studies that provide insights into what works, and what does not, in e-health., Results: On the basis of the lessons learned from the studies, we propose directions for best practices to develop e-health that promotes patient empowerment. These directions cover various aspects, such as the design and implementation of e-health, its information content and usability, awareness, and acceptance. The studies also indicate the difficulty of establishing that e-health is really dedicated to patient empowerment., Conclusions: Despite the body of knowledge about patient empowerment, as well as the technological visibility of e-health, evidence for best practices in general and for patient empowerment in particular is scarce. We call for a more systematic evaluation of e-health for patient empowerment and more reliable evidence. Beyond the organizational and technical issues involved in e-health, there is also a need to demonstrate its practical benefits to patients. The Netherlands is active in developing sustainable e-health. National initiatives are now in place to support the processes with the aim of establishing the required evidence-based best practices.

The Internet is nowadays a powerful medium and can help patients to become better-informed citizens. Increasingly, citizens are searching for health information on the Internet. The Internet-based resource often acts as a virtual healthcare professional. The effectiveness of the communication between the patient and the virtual healthcare professional depends partly upon the presence of contextual information. The issue here is to what extent the contextualization of information is needed for effective information seeking and for the person's understanding of the retrieved/received information. The impact of contextualization on information search also closely relates to the person's cognitive resources. Using a theoretical communication framework (Te'eni 2001), we explore contextualization in a health website, and discuss the above issues and the possible relevance of contextualized information on the informed patient.

Information technology (IT) is now essential to the development and delivery of health services. Healthcare professionals, including nurses, need appropriate educational training to enable them to use IT adequately because care is shared within multiprofessional teams in both hospitals and the community. In particular, primary care nurses have had less access than other health professionals to IT training and fewer opportunities to benefit from IT. Furthermore, there is little evidence in the literature on the current situation of IT training needs and requirements for primary care nurses. The PRACTIS (PRimary care nurses Access to Communications Technology and Informatics Skills) UK-based project has addressed these issues through an empirical investigation to establish a picture of the current primary care situation. This was done using a questionnaire, followed by practicing nurse focus groups. Directions for further work in the IT training of primary care nurses are discussed, together with recommendations to investigate the effect that the organization of the work within primary care groups may have on nurses' use and access to communications technology and informatics skills.