Web sites can give patients info they need for decisions

Credible Internet resources were found to be helpful for patients needing to make informed choices on cancer screening.

By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. Jan. 26, 2004.

Washington -- Physicians know these patients. They are the ones who bring pages and pages of Internet printouts to office visits. A new report concluded they may actually be saving the physician precious time by doing so -- at least when it comes to helping the patients sort through the pros and cons of cancer screenings.

The report, authored by the Task Force on Community Preventive Services and published in the January American Journal of Preventive Medicine, found that connecting patients to reliable Internet resources or handing them brochures on cancer screening does help them to make appropriate decisions. And if patients tap into this vast repository of health information on their own, it may well free up some time during ever-briefer office visits for physicians to discuss more patient-specific concerns.

Overall, the task force, an independent panel supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reviewed 11 studies with 15 investigational arms and found that brochures and Web-based information that individuals access independently can help them make good individual choices about cancer screening, including whether to be screened at all.

"We know that making decisions about cancer screening can be difficult for individuals and their families," said CDC Director Julie Gerberding, MD, MPH.

"These findings from the task force provide important insight about how public health can communicate effectively about the risks, benefits and other outcomes associated with screening," she said.