To examine the use and impact of health resources on the Web, researchers in Wisconsin created a whole new site. Although their study is ongoing, one finding is clear: the discussion boards are the best-used section.
The Comprehensive Health Enhancement Support System provides interactive education – message boards, detailed medical information, decision-making tools – for patients and their families. It began in 1987 as a long-term controlled study of how consumers use computers for health care; Internet access to the program was added later and quickly became dominant.
“People in the thousands have used it since its inception,” says Fiona McTavish, a deputy director of the program, a collaboration of the departments of industrial engineering and preventive medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.