Pediatric Informatics: Computer Applications in Child Health (Health ...

Chapter 24
Information Management by Patients
and Parents in Health and Disease
Mark M. Simonian
Objectives
To outline patient and parent information needs and communication in pediatric
care
To describe the evolution of information and communications technology (ICT)
and its effect on the relationship between families and pediatricians
To explore specific ICT tools with current examples and how pediatricians are
leveraging them to improve care, communication and patient satisfaction
24.1 Introduction
An effective partnership between a family and a pediatrician depends on good
communication. One of the most valuable services a pediatrician can provide a
child and family is his/her experience and skills in eliciting a history to diagnose
and treat a problem and in sharing health information to educate and empower
patients and families. Communication tasks that a practitioner performs may range
from explaining a diagnosis or test results to obtaining informed consent from a
literacy-challenged parent for a medical procedure to listening to and counseling a
distraught teenager.
Information and communication technology (ICT) can provide both benefits and
tradeoffs to patients, parents, and pediatricians. For families, telephone, fax, and
electronic mail with their health care providers may provide flexibility, speed,
and ease in exchange for the reassurance and other nuances of direct contact with a
trusted provider. For pediatricians, ICT may increase access, but must be managed
to prevent overload and to maintain quality of care and clinical and fiscal
productivity.
C.U. Lehmann et al. (eds.), Pediatric Informatics: Computer Applications 319
in Child Health, Health Informatics,
© Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2009