Editorial: Medicine and Society

Frontiers in Medicine

article

Pietro Ghezzi¹  Arianne Shahvisi¹  Hilde Stevens² 

[1] Brighton and Sussex Medical School, United Kingdom;Institute for Interdisciplinary Innovation in Healthcare, Université libre de Bruxelles

关键词: pseudoscience;    ethics;    health information;    genetic testing;    patient involvement;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fmed.2020.570551

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

This Research Topic on Medicine and Society focusses on different aspects of health information and their impact on the concept of personalized medicine. Members of the public are increasingly able to access large amounts of information, which raises important issues about quality, ideology, and commercial bias in the material available on the Internet. Rather than empowering patients and communities, which is a key aim for personalized medicine, biased or false information may promote the unregulated sale of health-related products and services online for which there is no evidence of efficacy. The degree to which individuals are capable of obtaining, processing, and understanding health information to make informed decisions related to preventing, curing, or living with diseases—briefly, their health literacy—greatly impacts their quality of life. Patient-centricity and patient empowerment is a growing movement that supports patients, and the wider public, in developing the skills needed to process health information and engage as an active partner in the drug development life cycle. Improving the quality of healthcare starts with improving the quality of health information made available to the public.

【 授权许可】

CC BY