As access to information - including specialised medical information - gets easier, patients are becoming increasingly involved in the healthcare service they receive.
A recent Frost and Sullivan report coins the term "power patients" - individuals who possess characteristics that distinguish them from traditional patients, and are important in driving the use of the Internet in healthcare.
"Power patients are a growing share of the population, and healthcare organisations will need to meet their needs," notes Frost & Sullivan industry analyst Konstantinos Nikolopoulos.
"Free choice of doctors, control over treatments received, access to quality information about their care and extremely high levels of customer service are some of the expectations of power patients," he adds.
The report notes that in recent years, healthcare organisations have had to adapt to numerous changes, from advances in diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, to the emergence of managed care and telemedicine.
The Internet's capability to empower patients and support information exchange will result in the need for new operational strategies, business and service delivery models, the report adds.
"The transition to electronic healthcare and the use of the Internet to exchange health information raises serious security concerns," points out Nikolopoulos.
"While the perception of the lack of security is inhibiting the use of the Internet for sharing clinical information, various technologies and procedures are being developed to deal with these security problems."
The European Union is already enforcing strict medical data security standards, and the North American market is also demanding improved security and confidentiality in healthcare transactions, with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
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