Telehealth is taking shape without the active participation of the people who are going to run it. Building a medical enterprise without physician partnership won't work any better than, say, building an oceanliner under the direction of urban planners. But many physicians and nurses I meet are angry and disillusioned. They say retrieval of online information doesn't reconcile with busy daily practice. They're not impressed by the tools and content offered online.
Evidence is more than anecdotal.
We can start by getting care providers involved in the evaluation of Web content. HON research shows that patients are most comfortable with Web sites recommended by their physicians. Despite all the disruption that patient-physician relations are undergoing, we see nothing to suggest that physicians and nurses will not remain patients' most trusted sources of advice. Evaluation of online information quality is not an original idea. More than 3,000 Web sites in 36 countries now subscribe to HONcode's eight principles for health Web sites.