TY - GEN
T1 - Physician Prescribing Changes Impacted by Patient-Initiated Online Health Searches
AU - Grasso, Michael A.
AU - Kim, Zachary
AU - Rogalski, Alexandra
AU - Nosrati, Benjamin
AU - Farrukh, Naveed
N1 - Funding Information:
II. METHODS We conducted an observational study to measure the impact of patient-initiated online searching on physician prescribing during emergency medical encounters. This work was supported through a grant from the University of Maryland Emergency Medical Associates. Regulatory approval for this work was obtained from the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the University of Maryland Medical Center Emergency Department Research Operations Committee.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 IEEE.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - According to prior studies, that roughly one third of people search the Internet before presenting to an Emergency Department (ED) for acute care, and that 75% of those searches contain inaccurate information. Up to now, no significant studies examined the impact of these searches on the provision of patient care. We conducted an observational study to look at differences in prescribing patterns among patients who searched the Internet about an acute medical issue before presenting to the ED. Accounting for demographic differences, we found that those who searched the Internet about a specific health problem before presenting to the ED were less likely to receive a medication in general (RR 0.67), but more likely to receive an opioid medication (RR 1.56) and equally likely to receive an antibiotic (RR 1.01). This study demonstrates how the lack of credible online health information has the potential to change clinical decision making.
AB - According to prior studies, that roughly one third of people search the Internet before presenting to an Emergency Department (ED) for acute care, and that 75% of those searches contain inaccurate information. Up to now, no significant studies examined the impact of these searches on the provision of patient care. We conducted an observational study to look at differences in prescribing patterns among patients who searched the Internet about an acute medical issue before presenting to the ED. Accounting for demographic differences, we found that those who searched the Internet about a specific health problem before presenting to the ED were less likely to receive a medication in general (RR 0.67), but more likely to receive an opioid medication (RR 1.56) and equally likely to receive an antibiotic (RR 1.01). This study demonstrates how the lack of credible online health information has the potential to change clinical decision making.
KW - clinical decision support
KW - consumer informatics
KW - health informatics
KW - online health information
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85125167549&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85125167549&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/BIBM52615.2021.9669731
DO - 10.1109/BIBM52615.2021.9669731
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85125167549
T3 - Proceedings - 2021 IEEE International Conference on Bioinformatics and Biomedicine, BIBM 2021
SP - 2682
EP - 2685
BT - Proceedings - 2021 IEEE International Conference on Bioinformatics and Biomedicine, BIBM 2021
A2 - Huang, Yufei
A2 - Kurgan, Lukasz
A2 - Luo, Feng
A2 - Hu, Xiaohua Tony
A2 - Chen, Yidong
A2 - Dougherty, Edward
A2 - Kloczkowski, Andrzej
A2 - Li, Yaohang
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - 2021 IEEE International Conference on Bioinformatics and Biomedicine, BIBM 2021
Y2 - 9 December 2021 through 12 December 2021
ER -