The eHealth blog has two interesting links to articles about eHealth and whether providers are ready for it. The October 6th post references an editorial by Henry Potts of London, questioning, "Is E-health Progressing Faster Than E-health Researchers?" eHealth's October 3rd post, "Are Physicians Ready for Patients With Internet-Based Health Information" examines in the age of the Internet how physicians deal patients bringing Internet health information to their appointments.

Both articles deal with health information in the Internet age and how doctor's patients (our library patrons) are accessing to become more educated about their health and are using the Internet as more than just a delivery system for information but also as a social networking resource providing peer group support. Competition has sprouted up between the EBM resources and the consumer created resources. "While clinicians value EBM quality criteria to support such choices, these are not used by the public. Whether we like it or not, online health consumers are using untested, amateur resources or commercial sites with financial motivations. Moreover, they appear to be making greater use of such resources than 5 years ago. Many of these amateur websites, online groups, blogs and all, seem valuable and safe, but is there enough ongoing research to demonstrate that?"

What is the answer for physicians and librarians? I am not exactly sure but it is essential that both physicans as well as medical librarians, should at the very least explore and be somewhat familiar with these Web 2.0 resources that their patients/patrons are using.