Tailored Internet Information Supply for Patients

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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Medical expert systems in combination with portal searching meta-search engines are exploited to provide reliable patient-tailored information. A prototype of a web-based information system has been developed and is to be evaluated. Its aim is to answer the decisive question whether expert system guided internet meta-search provides a better information supply for patients seeking health information online then this is possible by using ordinary search engines or health portals. The research does neither investigate the influence of ethical nor legal aspects of internet health information supply.

Official Title
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Study of the Quality of Self-Diagnosis by Headache Patients Getting Tailored Internet Information

Conditions
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Headache

Intervention / Treatment
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* Other: Expert system guided tailored information


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Age between 18 and 75 Suffers at least occasionally from headaches Has internet access Has not obtained a medical diagnosis (concerning this headache) by a physician, yet Exclusion Criteria: Age under 18 Age over 75 Does never suffer from headaches Has no internet access Has already gotten a medical diagnosis for her/his headaches

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years
Maximum Age: 75 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Main 1<br>Insurants of the health insurance company BARMER using the prototype to receive expert system guided tailored internet information about the type of headache they suffer from. | Other: Expert system guided tailored information<br>* The prototype is realised by a web-based information system. The HTML web-interface guides the user through the search process by querying the information demand. This is done by an integrated expert system. The expert system uses a rule based inference to determine an internal diagnosis. Based on this internal diagnosis the system searches quality labeled websites and presents relevant information to the user.<br>|
| Main 2<br>Insurants of the health insurance company BARMER using search engines and portals to gather internet information about the type of headache they suffer from. | |
| Online 1<br>Internet users using the prototype to receive expert system guided tailored internet information about the type of headache they suffer from. | Other: Expert system guided tailored information<br>* The prototype is realised by a web-based information system. The HTML web-interface guides the user through the search process by querying the information demand. This is done by an integrated expert system. The expert system uses a rule based inference to determine an internal diagnosis. Based on this internal diagnosis the system searches quality labeled websites and presents relevant information to the user.<br>|
| Online 2<br>Internet users using search engines and portals to gather internet information about the type of headache they suffer from. | |

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Conformity of self-diagnosis and medical diagnosis |  | After medical diagnoses has been received | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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Internet, Information supply, Tailoring, Patient empowerment, Headaches, Consumer Health Information, Information Services, Information Storage and Retrieval, Information Systems