Health e-People: Content, Community, Commerce, and Care

Online Health Consumer Opportunities

As explained by Mary M. Cain, Robert Mittman, Jane Sarasohn-Kahn, and Jennifer C. Wayne, Institute for the Future, Health e-People: The Online Consumer Experience is the second five-year forecast to map the landscape of Internet health care.

As consumer interest in the Internet for health care increases and converges with the growing capabilities of online health services, many opportunities will arise, both to improve health and for online health businesses. These opportunities fall into the categories of content, community, commerce, and care.

Content Opportunities

When it comes to health content for online consumers, one size does not fit all — in terms of gender, age, socio-economic status, ethnicity, health status, or medical condition. Significant content opportunities are based on targeting segments of the population with information that meets their specific needs. Among the most promising segments are women, seniors, and the Chronically Ill.

The Well perform episodic searching for information about short-term acute illnesses, pregnancy, prevention, anti-aging, and health care providers.

The Newly Diagnosed perform very intensive searching for specific information about a condition, with instant access unlimited by geography, time of day, or exclusively Western interpretations of appropriate medical treatment.

The Chronically Ill and Their Caregivers perform regular searching, using keywords, for information about the newest treatments and medications, drug information, diet and nutrition information, and alternative medicine information. They perform relatively little “site hopping.”

Community Opportunities

At its most basic, the Internet is a network of networks — a tool for connectivity. Internet services with large numbers of users have the critical mass to create useful online health communities. Significant opportunities exist to provide better connectivity, including links between patients and providers (at least those willing to go online), online agents to help users sort through complex information or find the best deals online, and wireless Internet services for health care. Many more opportunities will involve building communities. In addition to existing communities organized around disease states, sites may be provided for minority ethnic populations to exchange information on variations in health status and behaviors.

The Well engage in general chat with not much communication about specific health issues.

The Newly Diagnosed seek 24-hour access to experts, other patients dealing with the same conditions, alternative health practitioners, and support networks and organizations of all kinds. They look for key resources for getting rapidly oriented to a newly diagnosed disease, information and perspectives on treatment options and providers, advice on living with the disease, and support from veterans of the disease.

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