Patients with cancer, internet information, and the clinical encounter: a taxonomy of patient users.

The Internet has changed all of our lives forever and has certainly changed the way in which patients acquire information, share their stories, find others in similar circumstances, and analyze their medical situations. It is very clear that patients have widely adopted the use of online resources in the face of illness. Access to unfiltered information online clearly has positive and negative potential effects, and the introduction of Internet information into the physician-patient encounter may be managed in more or less productive ways. The means of managing such introductions of information should vary based on physicians' analyses of patients' information preferences and styles and their apparent reactions to the information. Managed well, knowledgeable patients can offer important opportunities of informed and shared decision making.