A study of peer-to-peer information in a domain of uncertainty: the case of epilepsy.

As increasing amounts of complex health information become available via the Internet, providers frequently advise that it is important for health consumers to carefully consider the source of lay information, as well as discuss the clinical information they find with their healthcare provider. Beyond clinical indicators and standards, however, there exist few evaluative frameworks for assessing health information, especially within peer-to-peer networks. Traditional methods of analyzing online discussion content, such as keyword examination or network structure analysis, have proven largely unsatisfactory for unstructured health data analysis. Using a disease-specific illustration, this study proposes a theoretical framework that is broad enough to encompass a variety of poorly understood healthcare domains, and provides one example of an often misunderstood and ambiguous disease that lends itself to online patient-centered discussion, which can serve to supplement traditional clinical information exchange.