Noor Aireen Ibrahim

Assessing the Accessibility of Health Web Sites During the H1N1 Pandemic

Health Web sites dramatically mushroomed following the arrival of the Internet in the 1990s. However, the accessibility of these Web sites must be continuously assessed to ensure consumers gain easy access to required health information. Accessibility becomes especially critical when information must be disseminated quickly, as in the case of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. This article will examine the accessibility of three government health Web sites providing information on H1N1. Findings suggest variation in the level of accessibility, with the U.S and Canadian Web sites fulfilling the most accessibility criteria and the Mexican Web site scoring the least. The accessibility assessment provides important preliminary findings for future research into information dissemination during a health emergency and has important implications for health Web page development.

The Structure of Clinical Consultation: A Case of Non-Native Speakers of English as Participants

Background: In many parts of the world, patients may find it difficult to visit doctors who share the same language and culture due to the intermingling of people and international recruitment of doctors among many other reasons. In these multilingual multicultural settings (MMSs), doctor-patient interactions face new communication challenges. This study aims to identify the structure of clinical consultation and its phases in an MMS where both doctors and patients are non-native speakers (NNSs) of English. Method: This study takes on a discourse analytic approach to examine the structure of clinical consultation as an activity type. 25 clinical consultation sessions between non-native speakers of English in a public healthcare centre in Malaysia were audio-recorded. Findings and Discussion: The results show that there are some deviations from the mainstream structure of clinical consultations although, in general, the pattern is compatible with previous studies. Deviations are particularly marked in the opening and closing phases of consultation. Conclusion: In almost all interactions, there is a straightforward manner of beginning medical consultations. The absence of greetings may have naturally reduced the length of talk. Hence, by directly entering medical talks, the doctors voice their concern on the curing aspects of the consultation rather than its caring facets. The preference of curing priority to caring is more goal-oriented and in alignment with the consultation as an activity type.