Group 2:

Examine issues surrounding consumers’ use of health information

technology.

 Many of health-related resources have varying levels of quality and are not
always easy to comprehend or understand.
 Support the consumer of health information not only to find and assess
relevant information on the internet that is contextualized and
personalized.
 Ineffective search strategies, as indicated by their tendency of using short
overly general queries when conducting online searches.
 The increase of health-related websites growing exponentially in recent
years has made the consumers difficult to assess the quality of health
information on the internet especially the websites that are credible and
trustworthy.
 Some health information available on many health-related websites are of
poor quality and are inconsistent with established medical professional
guidelines.
 Few consumers check the origin or date of the acquired information they
have gathered online.
 Some health-related websites that are available online are not user friendly
making the consumers especially for a layperson difficult to understand the
information they are looking for.
 Some existing tools or guidelines (e.g., filtering tools) that are devised by
the researchers for the consumers to evaluate the quality of information on
health-related websites are not adequately used by the consumers since
most of the consumers are not computer literate.
 Health-related websites must have a tailored and more customized
information that can fit the consumers personal circumstances, including
their own health situation. (Basically health-related websites must be made
to accommodate the consumers needs and preferences for instance a
certain health-related website must answer or satisfy the consumers
queries.)
 Online health information resources must be easily accessible and
understandable to the lay public.