Introduction: The role of physician and nurse in the therapeutic team depends on the prevailing medical model of health: biomedical or holistic and functional.

Purpose: The theoretical basis of the therapeutic role of doctor - nurse - patient contact from a psychological perspective is the Functional Model of Health created by Helena Wrona-Polanska.

Material and Methods:141 people after bone marrow transplantation were examined at the Hematology Clinic of Jagiellonian University. To examination were used the questionnaires of stress, coping strategies, personal resources, and grading scales of health and anxiety.

Results:Analysis of the results revealed predictors of subjective health and difference between subjective and objective health.

Conclusions: Author's Functional Model of Health used in the analysis of nurses work shows the complexity of the physician - nurse - patient contact: instrumental function, cognitive function, emotional function as a basis of innovative educational program for physicians and nurses.

Knowledge of people’s health information needs and information behaviour can be used in planning health interventions in a way that they would meet people’s needs as accurately as possible and reflect how health information is acquired and processed.

The aim of the study presented in this paper was to analyze the usefulness of online forums as a source of scientific knowledge about people’s health needs and information behaviour, which could then be actively used in the area of public health.

Method. The content, a total of 1,575 entries, derived from two open forums devoted to depression in the years 2012–2015 was analysed using a set of mixed methods, including: a formal (quantitative) analysis of the material using the tools of computational linguistics (QDAMiner Simsat), inductive theme analysis EMIC, in the so-called hard variety, reinforced by elements of Awdiejew’s conversational grammar, and comparative method.

Results: Both health information needs and behaviour can be identified on Internet forums dedicated to health problems. Linguistic analysis of online forums can give very interesting results and clues that cannot be obtained using questionnaires or personal interviews. It seems, however, that it should never be the only method used in investigating this matter. Since there are several intervening factors that may distort reliability of findings, determining whether we are dealing with real or created needs or behaviour requires confirming the results of the linguistic analysis of the forums using other methods.

Direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) in which pharmaceutical companies market prescription drugs directly to consumers is legal in only two countries – the USA and New Zealand. This article describes legislative milestones of DTCA development in the USA which have given rise to the current legal framework.

The article shows the cultural background for DTCA expansion, outlining the fight of patients’ associationsfor better access to information about therapy and drugs and change in perceiving the role of the patient in the health care professional-patient relations. It presents arguments supporting the producers’ right to advertise their products.

Direct-to-consumer advertising in the USA is a controversial subject. Although based on only limited data, the existing research gives arguments both in favour and against direct-to-customer advertising. The article also presents the EU policy towards DTCA, considering the consequences of the existing DTCA ban in the EU.