By Trish Stukbauer, IE News Service
When my elderly mother was diagnosed with parathyroid disease in 2004, her surgeon handed her a one-page pamphlet but armed me with a page filled with websites where I could find additional information. Far from being callous, he understood that giving her the time she needed to digest the ins and outs of a complex procedure at her own pace would be far more effective than the brief synopsis he could share within the time constraints of an office visit. He then followed up a week later with a pre-surgery meeting to answer any questions and address her concerns.
In just the few years since, internet usage has escalated to the point that there isn’t much that we Americans don’t do online, from banking to dating and even monitoring our home alarm systems. Searching for medical information is definitely not an exception. The term e-patient, which refers to empowered and engaged patients who take it upon themselves to better understand their health care, is increasingly referring to electronically connected patients as well.
“There is broad uptake for social media and user-generated content in health: 59% of e-patients have consulted blog comments, hospital reviews, doctor reviews, and podcasts about health and health care; 20% of e-patients have posted comments, reviews, photos, audio, video or tags related to health care,” reported Susannah Fox of the Pew Internet and American Life Research Project during a presentation on The Social Life of Health Information at e-Patient Connections 2009 on October 26, 2009. “Our surveys find that the internet is increasingly helpful to American adults seeking health information: 60% of e-patients (or 42% of all adults) say they or someone they know has been helped by following medical advice or health information found on the internet. That’s an increase from 2006, when 31% of e-patients (25% of all adults) said that. Three percent of e-patients say they or someone they know has been harmed by following medical advice or health information found on the internet, a number that has remained stable since 2006.”
Yet with so much information out there, how can you determine which is beneficial and avoid what is not? Here are some tips from the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services’ National Institute on Aging that you may want to consider when searching for a reliable site:
- Can you easily see who sponsors the website? Some sites may have a particular point of view or an affiliation with a group that financially benefits from encouraging web visitors to follow a particular course of treatment.
- Can you easily reach the website’s sponsor? Trustworthy sites will have readily available contact information, such as phone numbers and physical addresses, along with email addresses.
- Who wrote the information? Authors should be clearly identified and any affiliations or financial interest should be visibly disclosed.
- Who reviews the information? See if there is an editorial or advisory board comprised of medical experts who verify the information before it is posted.
- Can you tell when the information was written? Because of the speed with which medical progress is being made, finding current information can make a difference in how you should approach your condition. Older articles, however, may still contain valid information.
- Is your privacy protected? Just as in any other online interaction, use caution when divulging personal information. Never reveal your social security number, and be cautious about revealing your data on sites that share their information with other firms.
- Does the website make claims that seem too good to be true? Quick, miraculous cures and claims that are too good to be true usually are. Use common sense and verify information through independent sources (not links on the same site) before placing your faith in it.
