More than reducing health cost, it seems to me that internet is certainly giving (or can give) more agency to patients in their health issues. The information that can be found online goes from medical information and advice given by medical institutions (mayo clinic, for instance), published research papers, patients' recommendations of doctors (as in yelp), and patients exchange of medical advice and symptoms as well as empathic feelings. An informed patient surely has more resources to make decisions related to her health and to make better questions to the doctor or even suggesting specific treatments or medicines. This access to medical information is especially important in the US where getting easy/fast access to doctors is not always possible. --- On Mon, 2/23/09, air-l-request@listserv.aoir.org <air-l-request@listserv.aoir.org> wrote: Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2009 19:37:11 -0500 From: Yifeng Hu <hu@tcnj.edu> Subject: [Air-L] the role of new media in reducing health care cost? To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org Hi all, I am looking for articles/thoughts about whether new media can play a role in reducing health care cost. Any perspectives are welcome. Thanks. Yifeng** -- Yifeng Hu, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Department of Communication Studies Kendall Hall 244 The College of New Jersey 2000 Pennington Rd. Ewing, NJ 08628 Telephone: 609-771-2373 Fax: 609-637-5187 Email: hu@tcnj.edu Homepage: http://www.tcnj.edu/~hu/ Mariana Goya-Martinez University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign