e-Health

Overview

What is e-Health?

e-Health is the use of digital information and communication technologies to improve people’s health and health care. The increasing use of technologies, especially the Internet and mobile devices, to manage health highlights the potential of e-Health tools to improve population health.

There are numerous tools and resources that fall under “e-Health” including:

• Online communities and support groups
• Online health information
• Online health self-management tools
• Online communication with health care providers
• Online access to personal health records.

Why is e-Health important?

e-Health tools and resources enable health care consumers and their caregivers to improve health in a number of ways including:

• Managing chronic conditions
• Gathering information to make informed medical decisions
• Communicating with health care providers.

Review the tools, reports and research, and related resources in this section to learn more about e-Health.

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Tools

• Health Literacy Online: A Guide to Writing and Designing Easy-to-Use Health Web Sites The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP) has written a research-based how-to guide for creating health Web sites and Web content for the millions of Americans with limited literacy skills and limited experience using the Web.
• Toolkit for Trainers: Teaching Older Adults How To Find Health Information on the Internet This resource, developed by the National Institute on Aging, contains free, easy-to-use materials for trainers to help older adults find reliable, up-to-date online health information on their own.

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Reports & Research

• Expanding the Reach and Impact of Consumer e-Health Tools (2006) This study by ODPHP reviews the potential utility and value of consumer e-health tools for populations that experience health disparities. The report examines the most significant requirements and provides a vision to help guide the development of an inclusive e-health environment.
• How To Better Deliver Online Health Information to Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Other Pacific Islanders (2003) This report presents qualitative findings from research conducted on healthfinder.gov’s American Indian and Alaska Native section and Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Other Pacific Islander section to build user-focused sites for their cultural communities.
• How To Better Deliver Online Health Information to American Indians and Alaska Natives (2002) This report presents qualitative findings from user research conducted to better understand American Indians and Alaska Natives who seek health information online.

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Related Resources

• Usability.gov Usability.gov is a one-stop source for Government Web designers to learn how to make Web sites more usable, useful, and accessible.
• Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [HHS]) The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology is the principal Federal entity charged with coordinating nationwide efforts to implement and use the most advanced health information technology (IT) and the electronic exchange of health information.
• AHRQ Health IT Initiative AHRQ’s health IT initiative is part of the Nation’s strategy to put IT to work in health care. The site has a number of useful tools, reports, and funding announcements.
• Healthy People: Health Communication and Health IT Objectives Healthy People provides science-based, 10-year national objectives for improving the use, quality, and accessibility of health communication and health IT.

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