Summary
eConsulting, in all its contexts, can promote and improve the amount and quality of services and knowledge transferred to and among the community of health care providers and consumers. It can also improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the specialist and generalist workforce and accessibility to the services provided. This chapter defines eConsulting, provides the context, and introduces a conceptual framework to describe its current practice and future possibilities. A clinical scenario of a patient with a breast lump is used to ground the molecular, clinical, organizational, and social, legal, and ethical issues in real world practice. The approach/method used is based on the clinical process, evidence-based practice, and appraising the quality, validity, relevance, and usefulness of the information. The practicalities and utility of current eConsulting tools are discussed with a view to future ubiquitous use. Working through this chapter should assist readers to understand and describe (1) how eConsultations can link and translate scientific research into clinical practice, (2) the current implications of eConsultations, (3) the future potential of eConsultations.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Abbreviations
- ANT:
-
actor network theory
- EDS:
-
electronic decision support
- GP:
-
general practitioner (family physician/doctor, primary care physician, primary care practitioner)
- ICT:
-
information and communications technology
- HON (code):
-
Health on the Net (code)
References
Liaw, S. T., and Humphreys, J. S. (2006) Rural eHealth paradox: it’s not just geography!Aust. J. Rural Health 14, 95– 98.
Idriess, I. (1932) Flynn of the Inland. Angus & Robertson (Publishers) Pty Ltd., Sydney.
National Electronic Decision Support Taskforce. (2002) Report to Health Ministers: Electronic Decision support in Australia. Canberra: National Health Information Management Advisory Council; 2002 November.
National Electronic Health Records Taskforce. (2000) A Health Information Network for Australia. Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, 2000 July.
Law, J. (1992) Notes on the theory of the actor- network: ordering, strategy, and heterogeneity. Syst. Prac. Action Res. 5, 379– 393.
Nonaka, I., and Takeuchi, H. (1995) The Knowledge- Creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Latour, B. (1987) Science In Action. How to Follow Scientists and Engineers Through Society. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
Tuomi, I. (2000) Internet, innovation, and open source: actors in the network, in Association of Internet Researchers Conference, September 15, 2000, Lawrence, Kansas, USA.
Olsen, O., and Ghe, P. (2006) Screening for breast cancer with mammography (Cochrane Review). The Cochrane Library 2006(2).
Rojas, M., Telaro, E., Russo, A., Moschetti, I., Coe, L., Fossati, R., et al. (2000) Follow- up strategies for women treated for early breast cancer (Cochrane Review). The Cochrane Library 2000(2).
Bessell, T., Silagy, C., Anderson, J., Hiller, J., and Sansom, L. (2002) Prevalence of South Australia’s online health seekers. Aust. NZ J. Public Health 26, 170– 173.
Ilic, D., Bessell, T., Silagy, C., and Green, S. (2003) Specialized medical search- engines are no better than general search- engines in sourcing consumer information about androgen deficiency. Hum. Reprod. 18, 557– 561.
Bessell, T., McDonald, S., Silagy, C., Anderson, J., Hiller, J., and Sansom, L. (2002) Do Internet interventions for consumers cause more harm than good? A systematic review. Health Expect. 5: 28– 37.
Kriege, M., Brekelmans, C., Obdeijn, I., Boetes, C., Zonderland, H., Muller, S., et al. (2006) Factors affecting sensitivity and specificity of screening mammography and MRI in women with an inherited risk for breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res. Treat. 100: 109– 119.
Williams- Jones, B., and Graham, J. (2003) Actor- Network Theory: a tool to support ethical analysis of commercial genetic testing. N. Genet. Soc. 22: 271– 296.
Evans, W., and Relling, M. (1999) Pharmacogenomics: translating functional genomics into rational therapeutics. Science 286, 487– 491.
McLeod, H. L., and Evans W. E. (2001) Pharmacogenomics: unlocking the human genome for better drug therapy. Ann. Rev. Pharm. Toxicol. 41, 101– 121.
Evans, W. E., and Johnson, J. A. (2001) Pharmacogenomics: the inherited basis for interindividual differences in drug response. Ann. Rev. Genom. Hum. Genet. 2, 9– 39.
Baselga, J., Norton, L., Albanell, J., Kim, Y., and Mendelsohn, J. (1998) Recombinant humanized anti- HER2 antibody (Herceptin) enhances the antitumor activity of paclitaxel and doxorubicin against HER2/neu overexpressing human breast cancer xenografts, Cancer Res. 58, 2825– 2831. [published erratum appears in Cancer Res. (1999 Apr 15) 59(8), 2020].
Coiera, E., and Westbrook, J. (2006) Should clinical software be regulated? New Australian evaluation guidelines will help inform the debate. Med. J. Aust. 184, 600– 601.
Slawson, D., Shaughnessy, A., and Bennett, J. (1994) Becoming a medical information master: feeling good about not knowing everything. J. Fam. Pract. 38, 505– 513.
Eysenbach, G, and Norman, C. (2004) Introduction to CATCH- IT reports: critically appraised topics in communication, health informatics, and technology. J. Med. Internet Res. 6, e49.
Shannon, S. (2001) Critically appraised topics (CATs). Can. Assoc. Radiol. J. 52, 286– 287.
Ebell, M., Barry, H., Slawson, D., and Shaughnessy, A. (1999) Finding POEMs in the medical literature. J. Fam. Pract . 48, 350– 355.
Guyatt, G., Meade, M., Jaeschke, R., Cook, D., and Haynes, R. (2000) Practitioners of evidence based care. Br. Med. J. 320, 954– 955.
Delamothe, T. (2000) Quality of websites: kitemarking the west wind. Rating the quality of medical websites may be impossible. Br. Med. J. 321, 843– 844.
Boyer, C., Selby, M., Scherrer, J., and Appel, R. (1998) The health on the net code of conduct for medical and health websites. Comput. Biol. Med. 28, 603– 610.
Nater, T., Boyer, C., and Eysenbach, G. (2000) Debate about evaluation and monitoring of sites carrying the HON- Logo. J. Med. Internet Res. 2, e13.
Fallis, D., and Fricke, M. (2002) Indicators of accuracy of consumer health information on the Internet: a study of indicators relating to information for managing fever in children in the home. J. Am. Med. Inform. Assoc. 9, 73– 79.
Carroll, A., Saluja, S., and Tarczy- Hornoch, P. (2002) Consumer health information on the Internet. J. Am. Med. Inform. Assoc. 9, 402– 403.
Croft, D., and Peterson, M. (2002) An evaluation of the quality and contents of asthma education on the World Wide Web. Chest 121, 1301– 1307.
Chen, S. C. W., Blouin, R. A., Mao, Z., Humphries, L. L., Meek, Q. C., Neill J. R., et al. (1996) The cytochrome P450 2D6 (CYP2D6) enzyme polymorphism: screening costs and influence on clinical outcomes in psychiatry. Clin. Pharmacol. Ther. 60, 522– 534.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 Humana Press, a part of Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this protocol
Cite this protocol
Liaw, ST., Schattner, P. (2008). eConsulting. In: Trent, R.J. (eds) Clinical Bioinformatics. Methods in Molecular Medicine™, vol 141. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60327-148-6_19
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60327-148-6_19
Publisher Name: Humana Press
Print ISBN: 978-1-58829-791-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-60327-148-6
eBook Packages: Springer Protocols