Question

In the United States, the content and information exchanged on the Internet are relatively free from the control of our government and other organizations. In your initial post, take a position on how this freely available (and at times, inaccurate) information affects patient and healthcare provider beliefs and practices.

Answer 1

The availability of healthcare information or the clinical information to the public helps to understand the disease pattern, treatment, and related background. But this also raises the privacy and confidentiality issues. All the information that is available to the public must be arranged by following the specific guidelines established by Health Insurance Portability and Accountability (HIPPA). Maintaining the privacy and confidentiality of the patient is most important, which would otherwise lead to legal issues. So, the free access to the clinical information on the internet may initiate privacy concerns (for example, posting the images of a patient) among the patients and may affect the patient-physician relationship.