'DIPEx (Database of Individual Patients' Experience of illness) is a multimedia website which launched in July 2001. It's main component is a database of patients' experiences of specific condition, supplemented by evidence-based information about the illness and treatment options and other practical information.
This assignment will argue the implications of having access to the database 'DIPEx'. It will explain how the website provides sources of information about medical situations and compare this with the information available via the media. Then by using course materials, it will evaluate models of communication and discuss how more communication between professionals and patients is needed.
Nowadays, health care professionals do not have all the answers to medical problems and treatments that affect people's lives. Therefore, it is more important these days for society to become more informed in what happens to their health and it is evident, that more and more people want to keep informed about what happens to their health.
Before the Storm
English: A deep vein thrombosis of the right leg. ...
English: Abdominal computed tomographic scan showi...Society is lucky in the respect that because of technology the public now have more sources available to them for information; the internet, the media, and leaflets which are available from different organizations, and Yaphe (2000) stated that, 'First-hand' accounts of illness experience are believed to provide important insights for other patients and their carers (Section 2 Topic 4 Page 10). However, in tabloid newspapers and magazines, there are many personal stories, about health issues and it is difficult to know if this kind of information is reliable (BMJ, 2000).
There is a much greater demand for information from professionals, and patients are beginning to look for information themselves and then sharing it with others (Section 2, Topic 2). Doctors sometimes become use to prescribing medicines for an illness and this is known as the biomedical approach. Doctors look at the body...