The Epidemiologic Data on Falls, 1998-2010

Abstract

Thus, although the free flow of information is touted as a means of promoting patient autonomy, the crowded landscape of biased health care information on the Internet creates an environment in which it may be more difficult for patients to make informed health care decisions.An important first step toward ameliorating these risks would be to clearly label hospital websites in a manner that allows patients to identify them as advertisements.More resources are needed to create, and direct patients to, balanced online informational tools.Clinicians should ask patients what they have learned from online medical searches and assist them in forming a complete picture of the risks and benefits of treatment options.Finally, we must focus future attention not only on the content of health care advertising but on its impact.The risk that imbalanced information on US hospital websites may negatively impact patient decision making should be an area of close scrutiny and may provide support for stricter advertising regulations.