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© Copyright 2000 Rogers Media. The following article first appeared in the January 2001 edition of
BENEFITS CANADA magazine.
Another new year
And another new reason to worry about your benefits plan. Welcome to 2001.
By Kevin Press
You are not going to believe what your plan members are downloading from the Internet.
No, not that.
According to a recent study conducted by Rogers Media's Medical Post, a growing number of Canadian
patients are researching all that ails them on the World Wide Web. And, according to the doctor's journal,
a good deal of what they're finding is rubbish.
The Post people worked with Ipsos-Reid on the survey, interviewing 417 general practitioners and
specialists across the country this past summer.
Seven in 10 Canadian doctors report that patients are arriving in their offices armed with print-outs from
one or more Web sites.
This is particularly worrisome because the quality of many of these articles is not what you would like it
to be. While there are quality Web sites providing medically accurate content, your plan members are just
as likely to find inaccurate, even misleading, information.
Colin Leslie, a features editor at The Medical Post, led the paper's study. He says that while
doctors see value in patients sharing experiences, they are concerned about what he calls "support group
sites." These bulletin board-style Web sites attract sufferers of diseases, who post notes to one another
about symptoms and therapies.
"Doctors [worry] about the information patients get from those sites," says Leslie. "Generally, doctors
like the peer-reviewed sources--like The New England Journal of Medicine Web site [nejm.org]. You
want something that is either affiliated with a publication that you know or a university."
More than nine in 10 of the doctors surveyed by The Medical Post say they are at least "somewhat
suspicious" of the medical information available online. Three in 10 are either "very suspicious" or
"extremely suspicious."
That doctors want more control over the medical information their patients get is hardly earth shattering,
but there are two important points here for plan sponsors just the same.
First, despite all you've done to educate members about their benefits plan and healthcare, many of
them--probably most of them--are turning to other sources for information.
Second, many of those sources they're turning to are unreliable.
This all comes at a time when many plan sponsors across Canada are spending considerable amounts of time
and money on plan member communications and wellness initiatives. This study suggests that it is just as
important to steer plan members away from the bad information as it is to provide them with the good.
Perhaps you've been working to promote step therapy, encouraging plan members to begin with less expensive
treatments before moving onto pricier medications when necessary. Ask yourself how well that message is
going to stick when your plan member is visiting the Epstein-Bar Syndrome Support Group bulletin board,
reading about the latest miracle cure.
Leslie says most doctors are resistant to patient demands for specific meds. But, sometimes at least,
stubborn patients get their way.
"If patients are very persistent about wanting a particular thing, and there is no medical reason why a
patient should not have it, I don't think a doctor is going to kill himself trying to talk the patient out
of it," he says.
This is precisely the kind of weak link that so threatens Canada's healthcare chain. Some of these
disreputable sites that cause the doctors interviewed in The Medical Post survey such grief could be
directly impacting your drug plan.
We'll be celebrating the country's leaders in communications again this year. Our annual Communications
Awards, which we co-present with the Canadian Pension and Benefits Institute, is dedicated to recognizing
the country's most progressive communicators. We've seen extraordinary work in this program--the kind of
material plan members appreciate, even enjoy.
We want you to be a part of this year's competition. The deadline for entries is February 23.
--Kevin Press
kpress@rmpublishing.com
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