Information therapy

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Introduction

See also Bibliotherapy and Social media landscape

Information therapy (aka. infotherapy) is a type of information service that emerged in the 1990s in the United States. Designated by the symbol Ix™, the idea of infotherapy combines aspects of information and therapy, library and information science, health care and medicine. The term applies to issues such as patient compliance, consent and health literacy. For some, Ix is literally a physician-written prescription telling a patient what to read, learn and apply. For others, it is used to help a patient make treatment decisions such as whether to continue chemotherapy. Ix is a form of bibliotherapy and can be compared to concepts such as drug therapy, physiotherapy or even cell therapy, etc. - and viewed as a treatment tool or technique. In this case, Ix is used to effect some change in the patient like a drug, or supplementary and complementary therapy. Ix is defined as "prescribing the right information to the right person at the right time."

Role of health librarians

Information therapy has been described as "collaboration between client and librarian". This collaboration focuses on meeting the needs of patients and consumers or teaching them how to be more independent and information literate. This may entail searching the web for reliable information or how to critically appraise websites for reliability. Ix is often described as "...the prescription of evidence-based medical information to a specific patient, caregiver, or consumer at just the right time to help the person make a specific health decision or behavior change." Information can be "as important to a patient’s health as any drug, medical test or surgery", according to Steven Schneider (2002). Ix has been said to play an important role in health care and enable a shift to patient-centered care.

Other definitions

Ix is the timely actual prescription and provision of evidence-based health information to meet individuals' information needs to support sound decision making. Information prescriptions are usually written by a physician or nurse, but can be written by health librarians. This emerging area is a mix of bibliotherapy, cognitive therapy, computer and information literacy, and even psychotherapy, since it is in connection with psychological factors that affect health. In ideal settings, Ix should be able to empower patients by providing them with sound clinical evidence. Ix brings the patient’s contribution, activity, participation, experience, knowledge and wisdom to medical practice. Although it is a form of treatment, it is also a supplement and complement to other therapies.

Canadian context

Some form of information therapy is probably being used in various Canada health care organizations and hospital; however, research or cases studies in this area could not be found. Health systems like Canada’s, and managed systems like Kaiser Permanente’s in the US, have the unique advantage of connecting important players: physicians, hospitals and clinics, nurse advice lines, other clinicians, payers. That infrastructure is needed for information therapy to reach its most efficient and effective levels. Canada has everything it needs to be an information therapy success story; a well-educated population, a growing Internet infrastructure, an organized healthcare system with centralized system potential, a long-standing health policy position that recognizes how much people can do for their own health, a strong desire to extend the reach of healthcare, etc. And to make sure that people get the care they need when they need it in both rural and urban areas, and evidence-based information databases that are written for the Canadian public. Are there any specific examples of Ix in operation in Canada? Let me know dean.giustini@ubc.ca

References

• Butcher, L. What the devil is information therapy? Managed Care June 2007.
• Craig E. Developing online information literacy courses for NHSScotland. Health Information and Libraries Journal 2007 24(4): 292-297.
• Gwinn BR. White paper: The Ix Evidence Base: Using Information Therapy to Cross the Quality Chasm.
• Healthwise. Information Therapy.
• Information therapy fuels wise consumer healthcare choice. November 2004. Consumer Driven Healthcare, v3(11).
• Kemper DW. White paper: The Business Case for Information therapy.
• Kemper DW, Mettler M. Information therapy: prescribed information as a reimbursable medical service.
• Mettler M, Kemper D. Information Therapy: Health Education One Person at a Time. Health Promotion Practice 2004 4(3) 214-217.
• Pew Internet & American Life Project. Vital decisions: How Internet users decide what information to trust when they or their loved ones are sick. May 22, 2002.
• Schneider, S. Information Therapy Answers the Institute of Medicine's Harsh Report. Managed Care Quarterly. Winter 2002.
• Seidman J. White paper: the mysterious maze of the World Wide Web: what makes health information high quality? 2004.
• The Center for Information Therapy
• Seidman J. Arrival of 21st-Century Health Care: Group Health Cooperative Reengineers Its Delivery System Around Information Therapy and Patient-Centered Informatics. Center for Information Therapy, 2004
• Trevena LJ, Davey HM, Barratt A, Butow P, Caldwell P. A systematic review on communicating with patients about evidence. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice 2006; 12,(1): 13-23.