Patient-focused internet interventions in reproductive medicine: a scoping review.

Background: The Internet has revolutionized fertility care since it became a popular source of information and support for infertile patients in the last decade. The aim of this scoping review is to map (i) the main categories of patient-focused Internet interventions within fertility care, (ii) the detailed composition of the interventions and (iii) how these interventions were evaluated.

Methods: A literature search used various 'Internet' and 'Infertility' search terms to identify relevant studies published up to 1 September 2011.

Chat about what matters most: an analysis of chat contributions posted to an outpatient fertility website.

A content analysis of chat utterances generated by in vitro fertilization (IVF) patients and healthcare professionals revealed that most chat is about the treatment itself and not about childlessness; 56% discloses psychological aspects, 27% physical aspects, and 17% social aspects of the treatment; and that accounts of both external and internal coping behaviors could be identified.

IVF patients show three types of online behaviour.

Background: The internet introduces new ways to deal with stress. However, it is unclear how its resources are used in everyday life. Using a web-based personal health record (PHR), we observed the patient's online behaviour and linked this to distress, theories on dealing with stress and demographics.

Dynamics of Internet usage during the stages of in vitro fertilization.

Hospitals and clinics develop Internet strategies to emancipate and empower their patient population. At Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, we developed an Internet-based personal health record that provides patients with general and personal information about their treatment and that provides facilities for communication with fellow patients and with physicians. Because not much is known about information and communication needs of IVF and ICSI patients in relation to their treatment, we observed the intensity of use of this personal health record during the various stages of IVF treatment.

Empowering patients undergoing in vitro fertilization by providing Internet access to medical data.

Objective: To study the effect of an Internet-based personal health record on the empowerment of patients undergoing IVF.

Design: Randomized clinical trial.

Setting: Patients undergoing IVF and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) in an academic research environment.

Barriers integrating dedicated software for quality management in pain centres.

Objectives: Explore the feasibility of integrating a dedicated pain centre information system as part of a quality management network with a number of different Hospital Information Systems.

Material & Methods: A systematic approach integrating and implementing the system in 15 selected hospital organisations (a nationwide 15% non-random sample).

Results: Hospitals have widely varying policies on integration and implementation of additional clinically required 3rd party software.

Patient-centred care: using online personal medical records in IVF practice.

Background: Generic patient-accessible medical records have shown promise in enhancing patient-centred care for patients with chronic diseases. We sought to design, implement and evaluate a patient-accessible medical record specifically for patients undergoing a course of assisted reproduction (IVF or ICSI).

Methods: The personal medical record (PMR) database was developed using three formative evaluation steps, and its user-experience was evaluated through a cross-sectional study.

Quality control in management of pain.

Since 1987 several pain clinics in The Netherlands have started with some kind of computer-assisted recording of data, mainly for purposes of quality control. However, this has not yet led to routinely generated reports about the quality of these clinics because a consensus on how to assess quality in pain-treatment is missing. Using classical system-development methods a global specification for an information system for quality assessment was defined on which a prototype application was based.

Current Internet use and preferences of IVF and ICSI patients.

Background: Nowadays, the Internet has a tremendous impact on modern society, including healthcare practice. The study aim was to characterize current Internet use by IVF and ICSI patients and to identify their preferences regarding Internet applications in fertility care.

Methods: A total of 163 couples with fertility problems awaiting an IVF or ICSI procedure in the University Medical Centre Nijmegen, The Netherlands, was asked to complete a written questionnaire on Internet use in general, and also for fertility-related problems, preferences regarding Internet applications in fertility care and demographic characteristics.