The New Second Opinion

 Edelman, a Global PR firm in the States has recently got a lot of publicity with a five-country survey of over 5000 adults (including more than 1000 in the UK) about how engaged people feel in their own healthcare. You can access the full results here. (It'sa pdf file). Highlights include:

1. People are becoming more engaged on health issues
2. People are becoming more engaged with companies and
   organizations involved in health … and want even more
3. People are becoming more engaged with health products and
   services … and want even more
4. 4 out of 5 people say they are Health Involved
5. 1 out of 3 people believe themselves to be Health Informed
6. 2 out of 5 people are health Engaged
7. 1 out of 5 people can be categorised as Health Info-entials (Edelman's term for the people who self-report to being involved, informed and engaged).

The biggest national group of Health Info-entials seem to be the Chinese (35% self-report) whilst the smallest is amongst UK respondents, where only 13% believe themselves to be involved, informed and engaged. The USA group is in the middle, coming in at 20%.

There's lots more detail about these 'leading edge' Health Info-essentials in the report, including quite a few national comparatives. 

However the finding that has really struck a chord with me concerns what Edelman calls 'The New Second Opinion'.  Perhaps not unsurprisingly, 88% of respondents agreed that  "I usually turn to my physician to validate information that I get online". But get this. Amazingly, (to me at least), the same percentage (88%), also agree with the statement "I usually turn to other sources to validate information I get from my doctor".

We live in a world where people seek to validate every professional opinion they receive. Now things start to get really interesting.

nhsEdelmanengagement