BMJ  2004;328:1150 (15 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7449.1150

Editorial

Evaluation of ehealth systems and services

We need to move beyond hits and testimonials

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

For this article the term ehealth includes use of the internet or other electronic media to disseminate health related information or services.¹ Many ehealth sites report huge numbers of users and testimonials of their benefits. Unfortunately, similar testimonials can be found for snake oil,² and pornography sites boast large numbers of hits. Although a systematic review seeking evidence of harm from ehealth websites was inconclusive, few rigorous studies exist that show benefit from ehealth.³

Ehealth evaluations must move beyond testimonials and usage reports, but how much evaluation is enough depends primarily on the user. When creating internet applications, we can easily forget who our users are and what they need. We may forget that a woman with a diagnosis of breast cancer is facing a life threatening disease, must make critical decisions very quickly, and must cope with treatments that alter her quality of life dramatically. One can understand a . . . [Full text of this article]

University of Wisconsin Center of Excellence in Cancer Communication Research, University of Wisconsin, Madison 53726 USA (dhgustaf@facstaff.wisc.edu)

National Institute for Clinical Excellence, London WC2N 5HR (jeremy.wyatt@nice.nhs.uk)

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Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

ehealth systems and services: evaluation studies!

Dr.Naseem Akhtar Qureshi, MD, IMAPA, LMIPS
bmj.com, 19 May 2004 [Full text]