Patient Info, The Internet And OTCs: FDLI Meeting

The changed dynamics of the evolving US public health care system haveimplications for the availability of health care information to the public, Deborah Steelman, a lawyer specializing in managed care issues, told the US Food and Drug Law Institute's annual Pharmaceutical Update meeting (Marketletter June 2 and this issue, pages 24-25).

As patients live longer, with more chronic conditions than in the past, they have many more interactions with the system. She predicted that they will be on-line with health-care givers on a daily basis. Health care delivery is under complete renovation, in transition from cottage industry to horizontal and vertical integration, and will be fully interconnected, electronically and financially. Regulation of information may retard or aid key aspects of this transition, and while the government has led innovation in health care financing (setting up diagnosis related groups), it is reactionary when it comes to changing the delivery system.

Tomorrow's patient will understand that knowledge is power, and will make more demands for treatments, whether Food and Drug Administration-approved or not, she said. The role of disease groups will build from their current social services and public advocacy functions to providing information and comparative evaluations about treatment options in cooperation or intervention with health systems.