Modern technology is incredible. It has enabled amazing advancements in communication, medicine, architecture, industry, transportation, and safety. It has raised new viewpoints, shortened gaps between friends and colleagues, and posed and answered further questions about access and opportunity. A computer connected to the internet is a powerful tool that allows you to access almost all of the world’s information.  Anyone can put the vast knowledge available on the internet to good use to improve your overall health. “Most older people, according to our study, are not taking advantage of this. It’s not for everybody, but it’s a valuable resource, and I’m cautiously optimistic that most people will benefit from it.” (Viswanath). Therefore, let us dive deeper into understanding how the internet is helping millions of people worldwide improve their health and wellness.

Self-Management and Internet Health

Internet users can use virtual networks and forums to track their diet and exercise. Internet users can also use internet resources that archive their personal health information to help them recognize and control their risk for depression, diabetes, and other common diseases and health disorders. Thomas Creer, who worked at the Children’s Asthma Research Institute and Hospital in the 1960s, was the first to advocate self-management (Kerry). Self-management is gaining traction in the medical community as a critical component in treating and managing chronic diseases such as hypertension, congestive heart failure, depression, and diabetes. These diseases are among the most costly and pervasive health issues in the United States and the world, hence the growing need for people to take preventive measures and curative measures primarily through the internet’s knowledge.

Patients with chronic illnesses can be challenging to handle, particularly in a healthcare system geared toward treating acute infections. According to recent scientific evidence, patients who actively engage in their self-management practices regarding health care decisions and actions, on the other hand, have better health outcomes and functional status than those held in more passive positions.

Increased patient self-management has resulted in higher patient satisfaction and lower hospital and emergency room costs. Stress management approaches that teach self-management of existing diseases have also been influential in the workplace. The majority of these wellness self-help services provide diet and workout plans and stress, pain, and disease management. Large-scale analyses of occupational stress management systems indicate that teaching self-management reduces company expenses by lowering care use and absenteeism.

A Self-Management Initiative

Thanks to the internet, the concept of patients consciously monitoring and preserving their health and well-being, known as self-management in the medical world, is gaining popularity. Employers are now using wellness plans and bonuses to inspire workers to take charge of their well-being. Given the benefits of self-management, it’s no surprise that Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs), which offer essential resources for workers to address common health issues, are the most common workplace wellness initiatives worldwide (Jones, L and Tanigawa).

Ninety-five percent (95%) of employers surveyed in the new study “Working Well: A Global Survey of Health Promotion” said they have employee assistance programs, and seventy-six percent (76%) said they provide disease management programs. The problem is that in-house wellness therapy is expensive, especially for small and medium-sized businesses, which are less likely to have self-management counseling programs (Xerox).

An Overview of the Internet Health and Wellness Industry

Keas

Internet health tools, also known as e-health, are focused mainly on the patient, assisting the patient in managing their care away from the doctor. Keas is one of the companies that target the internet consumer health market. The business, which a former Google Health team member heads, offers users a forum to organize and manage their health data in a self-management format (Keas.com).

Keas users fill out a profile with personal health information. The users then acquire access to various interactive online resources to educate and support them to monitor their current or at-risk health issues (Keas.com). Preventative, chronic, and acute health conditions covered by care plans provide plans to help people control low back pressure, cholesterol, and strep throat.

Keas collaborates with doctors and health care experts to develop plans that serve as various guidelines, instructions, and knowledge for each person. Keas can prescribe personalized plans and monitor what works and doesn’t work for each client to manage their health from home because users add their health data to their Keas profile (Keas.com).

Telehealth

According to data from Global Market Insights, Telehealth (the umbrella word used to characterize all medical services and health education provided digitally) has grown to become a $45.5 billion industry since 2010 (Ugalmugale and Swain). However, many patients are unsure how much a virtual visit would cost or whether insurance will cover the cost. People also did not know how to sign up for one, and they decided to keep their current physician, who most certainly wasn’t providing virtual services. As the COVID-19 pandemic spread in February 2020, several doctors advised patients with non-emergent needs to delay in-person treatment and consider virtual appointments (Ugalmugale and Swain).

Videoconferencing has integrated into the fabric of our daily lives almost a year after the start of COVID-19-induced social distancing. It may have taken a pandemic to persuade Americans to use video conferencing for doctor appointments, but we are all on board now. After years of unfulfilled Telemedicine’s promise due to widespread lack of adoption in the United States, the coronavirus provided Americans with something even the best telemedicine marketers couldn’t. COVID-19 is a compelling reason to shift primary healthcare from in-person to virtual. According to a Rally Health survey focused on preventive care, one in three Americans plan to continue scheduling telemedicine appointments even after the COVID-19 pandemic is entirely over (Rally Health).

State and federal regulators hastily loosened Telehealth licensing requirements. Medicare and Medicaid agreed to reimburse providers for a much broader range of Telehealth programs, assisting in digitizing health care delivery (Robeznieks). Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) started campaigning for Telemedicine, and the American Medical Association (AMA) issued new recommendations to help providers get up to speed (Robeznieks).

The extent, to which conventional health care services have expanded their scope by virtual visits, as highlighted in a study led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, is astonishing (NYU Langone Health / NYU School of Medicine). Researchers discovered that virtual urgent care visits to NYU Langone Health increased by 683 percent between early March and mid-April last year, while non-urgent virtual visits increased by a previously unprecedented 4,345 percent. Before the pandemic, OptumCare had 1,000 providers using Telemedicine; currently, it has more than 14,000. It became apparent that Telemedicine provided a valuable new means to communicate with quarantined patients at a time when clinicians were at risk of losing touch (NYU Langone Health / NYU School of Medicine).

We have arrived at a crucial juncture in self-management with the help of technology and the internet. We need to keep the traction that Telemedicine and digital well-being have achieved over the last year by making interactive resources more available. To continue, the government would need to expand its previous independence, which paved the way for reimbursement and provided incentives for providers to keep a Telehealth presence after the pandemic has passed (Ugalmugale and Swain). We must also aim to improve services for people with serious illnesses by providing new avenues for them to engage with clinicians and make long-term lifestyle improvements.

Conclusion

However, there is also much to read and explore about self-management and internet health. It’s not about deciding between physically heading to the clinic or keeping your life on your own; it’s about using various outlets of health information and assistance. Is all of this internet assistance potentially beneficial? According to some reports, patients who participate in online education and community programs have more significant health effects than control groups (The Centre for Mind-Body Medicine). Participants who took part in a study online reported feeling more satisfied and confident in their ability to manage their medical conditions (The Centre for Mind-Body Medicine).

Despite initial hope, e-health research is still limited, but this may change as patient self-management support continues to evolve. Via video-based consultations with treatment providers and supervision of medical devices (e.g., pacemakers and dosimeters) deployed in the household, the internet allow for better consumer health surveillance and, theoretically, availability of in-home care. Such activities aim to aid in the early diagnosis of possible health issues such as cardiac attacks, congestive heart failure, and diabetes and minimize the need for therapeutic care and expensive hospital stays.

Works Cited

Jones, et al. “Stress Management and Workplace Disability in the US, Europe and Japan.” J Occup Health Vol. 45 (2003): 1-7.

Keas.com. About Keas. n.d. 11 April 2021 <https://www.keas.com/logon.html?destination=index.html>.

Kerry, Evers. “eHealth promotion: the use of the Internet for health promotion.” Am J Health Promotion (2006): 20-24.

NYU Langone Health / NYU School of Medicine. Telemedicine transforms response to COVID-19 pandemic in disease epicenter. 30 April 2020. 11 April 2021 <https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/04/200430150220.htm>.

Rally Health. Preventive Care in America. 2020. 11 April 2021 <https://www.rallyhealth.com/preventive-care-in-america-survey-2020>.

Robeznieks, Andis. Key changes made to telehealth guidelines to boost COVID-19 care. 19 March 2020. 11 April 2021 <https://www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/digital/key-changes-made-telehealth-guidelines-boost-covid-19-care>.

The Centre for Mind-Body Medicine. The Centre for Mind-Body Medicine. n.d. 11 April 2021 <https://cmbm.org/>.

Ugalmugale, Sumant and Rupali Swain. Telemedicine Market. April 2020. 11 April 2021 <https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/telemedicine-market>.

Viswanath, Dr. Kasisomayajula. How the internet can help you boost your health Harvard press. June 2016.

Xerox. “Working Well: A Global Survey of Workforce Wellbeing Strategies.” October 2016. Global Healthy Workplace. 11 April 2021 <https://www.globalhealthyworkplace.org/casestudies/2016_Global_Wellbeing_Survey_Executive-Summary.pdf>.