Internet-informed Patient #iip

I spent a little time on twitter tonight and a tweet about the forthcoming Internet-informed Patient symposium caught my eye – hat tip to @amcunningham.

It looks like a great day, the link above contains more info, it’s a symposium (to be honest with you I’m not sure what the difference is between a symposium or a conference – whether it’s just semantics or something structural) and it’s preceded by a hack day for developers and programmers.

The symposium looks to explore the increasing access that patients have to information via the internet and the impact that has on health care practice. It describes the focus  in the following terms:  ’Already we know that a significant proportion of Internet users use the network to search for health-related information, and that many of them use the information they find online to self-diagnose.  We also know that surprisingly few searchers check the reliability of the online sources that they consult’. Something I can relate to, personally and professionally.

The hack day gives a chance for ‘programmers and developers to meet to discuss and prototype a range of patient-focused applications for both the Web and mobile devices’ – am sure this will be a great opportunity, just can’t help but think that it would be better to hold the symposium before the hack day? I’m sure that this has been thought about already and there are certainly benefits to having the hack day before the meeting – just can’t help but think it might prove more useful to acknowledge the challenges worth discussing at the symposium and then to provide the chance for the developers and programmers to prototype some solutions. It will be interesting to see how things progress.

There is a form to fill out if you’re interested in attending the symposium, you can access it here. I’m not sure what my work commitments look like yet but way well apply for a place as I’m very interested in the opportunities to provide patients with information, the impact that has on them and their carers, the opportunities provided to improve, develop or challenge relationships between professionals and patients, and of course the more general point about how evidence use can inform the development of services. Looks like a promising event.



Photo (CC) Will Lion on flickr