Health Affairs Blog: Standards Vital for Online Medical Data
In a Health Affairs blog post, Maribeth Shannon -- director of the California HealthCare Foundation's market and policy monitor program -- writes that "in spite of an explosion of available online health care quality information, U.S. consumers, who are more frequently researching simple decisions online, have been reluctant to adopt the same behaviors to research their health care options." Shannon adds that "there is need for greater standardization in quality reporting, as well as standardized means of making this information more accessible to health care consumers." She concludes, "If we are expecting consumers to play a critical role in choosing the best path [for their health care], we must help them better navigate the twists in the road, providing them with easily understandable roadmaps." CHCF is the publisher of California Healthline.
- "The Credible Threat of Consumer Engagement" (Shannon, "Health Affairs Blog," Health Affairs, 10/4).