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In June 2009, the Pew Internet & American Life Project and the California Healthcare Foundation released a major report focusing on how Internet users are using social technologies for health and wellness purposes.  According to Pew, the study reveals that "technology is not an end, but a means to accelerate the pace of discovery, widen social networks, and sharpen the questions someone might ask when they do get to talk to a health professional. Technology can help to enable the human connection in health care and the Internet is turning up the information network’s volume."

Some of the major findings of the study follow.

• 61% of American adults look online for health information (this is the group Pew defines as "e-patients")
• American adults continue to turn to traditional sources of health information, even as many of them deepen their engagement with the online world.
• The majority of e-patients access user-generated health information published on blogs, social networks and other sites.
  
• Despite the increasing popularity of social network sites and status update services, few people are using them to gather and share health information.

See the presentations below for more information on how e-patients are using the Internet and social technologies.

Trends In Online Medical Activity