Original
Message-----
From: Flis Henwood [mailto:F.Henwood@BTON.AC.UK]
Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2003
The
area of e-Health is now huge and covers a wide range of socio-technical
innovations in health service delivery and organisation. This Special Issue
will explore just one key area of e-Health-
the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the
communication of health information and advice - both to patients/public and
between members of the public.
Health
policy documents in many countries suggest that the greater availability of
health information via the Internet will necessarily lead to the emergence of
more informed patients who are better able to assess the risks and benefits of
different treatments for themselves. The now widely used notion of 'informed
choice' is indicative of the greater agency and sense of empowerment said to
be experienced by such patients. Such thinking exists within sociology, too,
where, following Giddens' notion of the 'reflexive consumer', there is some
support for the idea that the overall expansion in medical knowledge via new
media technologies such as the Internet will empower patients.
This
Special Issue of iCS seeks to explore the assumptions embedded in this 'informed
patient' discourse through empirically-based papers which explore the extent
and nature of Internet use in a range of settings and its relationship to
patient empowerment and more equitable practitioner-patient relationships.
Topic
areas we hope to cover include:
·
Creation and use
of health information websites by both health
care professionals and the public
·
Use of the
Internet in consultations between practitioners and patients
·
Online health
chat and self-help groups
Key
cross-cutting themes we hope to examine include:
·
Access and
equality issues
·
Information
quality
·
Practitioner-patient
relations
·
Information and
empowerment
Deadline
for submission of papers: Monday 17th November 2003.
Co-editors:
Flis Henwood, Brighton University, UK and Ellen Balka, SFU, Canada.
Please
send all submissions to:
Dr
Flis Henwood
Social
Informatics Research Unit School of Computing, Mathematical and Information
Sciences University of Brighton, Watts Building, Lewes Road Brighton BN2 4GJ f.henwood@bton.ac.uk
or tel +44 (0)1273 643341
This
message from the Pan American Health Organization, PAHO/WHO,
is part of an effort to disseminate information related to Equity, Health
inequality; socioeconomic inequality in health; socioeconomic health
differentials. Gender, Violence, Poverty, Health Economics, Health Legislation,
Ethnicity, Ethics, Information Technology and Virtual libraries, Research
& Science issues. [IKM Area]
PAHO/WHO
Website: http://www.paho.org/English/HDP/
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List - Archives - Join/remove: http://listserv.paho.org/Archives/equidad.html
