However, many patients have limited mobility, want additional medical information and wish to share experiences with others in similar medical circumstances. Patients are given access to a library, discussion groups, chatrooms, and the opportunity to communicate privately with healthcare providers. Patients were included in the design process and are involved in the evolution of the site. Monitoring of the project is performed by Epilepsy care providers. The design has evolved from an analysis of the how the MGH public web forums are used based on feedback from the users.
Health information is one of the top three topics of interest to users of the Web.
The number of Internet sites that offer some form of medical self-help is large and growing rapidly. Traditional self-help groups can be very beneficial to individuals suffering from chronic illness. Advanced telecommunications may supply some of the benefits of traditional self-help groups without the constraints of time and place. Over the past four years 500,000 users have viewed more than 40,000,000 posts. Therefore, we did not know or control the concerns, information requests and expertise of the individuals using the forum.