It always happens when you visit a doctor: You remember that nagging question about a prescription or symptom–after you leave the office. But in cyberspace the doctor is always in. You can search for an insomnia treatment at three in the morning. You can ask as many questions as you like. And you can, under the cover of anonymity, ask any question you like, no matter how embarrassed you would be in real life.
The problem, of course, is with some of the answers you may get. Since anyone can publish a Web site, there are no quality controls governing on-line medical advice. What’s more, before you pour out too much personal information in chat rooms, remember that you can’t be sure a fellow cybersurfer is telling the truth about being a cancer survivor or a physician. And obviously, a layperson shouldn’t try to diagnose an illness through on-line sources. If you think you’re sick, seek professional medical advice.
But the Internet does hold a wealth of advice and information about health, and a few guidelines can help a savvy consumer to harness that power. Here are some hints for where and how to start a search:
– Starting out. Thousands of Web sites offer consumers medical information, but finding the pearls in all that muck can be difficult. “It’s about 90 percent `Jerry Springer’ and 10 percent `Masterpiece Theater,’ and finding the `Masterpiece Theater’ part is really hard because there’s no TV Guide for the Internet,” says Jennifer Wayne-Doppke, author of the “Annual Healthcare Guide to the Internet,” a book published each year by COR Healthcare Resources Inc. of Santa Barbara, Calif.
A good starting point is a search engine designed specifically to catalog medical Web sites. Medical World Search (www.
mwsearch.com), based in Katonah, N.Y., for example, provides links to more than 100,000 Web pages with medical information. And Mental Health Net (www.cmhc.com), run by CMHC Systems Inc. of Dublin, Ohio, lists about 7,000 sites with information on mental health. Sites in these two directories have been screened by professionals.
– Watching out. How can you make sure the information is credible? One sign to watch for: the seal of approval from the Health on the Net Foundation (www.hon.ch), a non-profit organization based in Geneva.
Sorting the good advice from the bad is especially difficult when it comes to non-traditional medicine. “There are so many things in alternative medicine where the claims are totally invalid,” says Derek Moran, who runs a Web site from Mont Clare, Pa., called Wellness Web (www.wellweb.com).
The staff tries to provide information on conventional and alternative treatments. The site has an advisory board that includes some doctors, nurses, an immunologist and a public-health official.
– Disorders and diseases. The Web offers a wealth of information on illnesses. One of the best sites is Medline (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/), the National Library of Medicine’s database of abstracts, which offers free access to more than nine million abstracts of articles published in 3,800 biomedical journals. The complete articles can be ordered over the Internet for a fee.
A search through this database can reveal experimental treatments for life-threatening illnesses, tell the side effects for a medication you’re taking or relieve the worries that keep a person awake at night.
But many of these sources are written in technical jargon and could be confusing or misleading to laypeople. Web cruisers run the risk of thinking they have all sorts of illnesses if they start scanning the Web for ailments that match their symptoms. Again, see a doctor if you think you’re sick.
– Doctors and hospitals. The Web can help you find a specialist or give you an idea as to how your local hospital rates. The American Hospital Association (www.ama-assn.org) offers a physician-search database with information on doctors’ schooling, residencies and specialties. You can search for a doctor based on a specialty and town, a useful tool for patients who have recently relocated.
Some state medical associations have Web sites with information about local hospitals and patient rights, and a few even post disciplinary actions taken against medical workers.
– Drugs. Did you forget to ask whether you can drink alcohol while taking a medication? Ever want to check the track record of a pharmaceutical manufacturer?
The Food and Drug Administration’s site has a special section, the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (fda.gov/cder/index.html), with information on approval of new drugs. In addition, the FDA enforcement report, posted weekly, details actions taken by the regulatory agency, so you can find out when manufacturers have misstated information.
RxList (www.rxlist.com), a Benecia, Calif., company providing an Internet drug index, lets visitors look up a drug by either a generic or brand name, find out its side effects, read about clinical studies and bone up on warnings.
Another site, MedEc Interactive (www.medecinteractive.com), is published by Medical Economic Co., the Montvale, N.J., company that puts out the pharmaceutical bible, the Physicians’ Desk Reference. The site is available at no charge to doctors who register. Everybody else must pay $9.95 a month, or $99.95 a year.
– Support groups. One of the most alluring aspects of cyberspace is the feeling of community that springs up. In on-line support groups, you’re likely to find others who have experienced the same medical condition, no matter how remote or unusual.
The chat rooms and electronic bulletin boards, such as that of HealthAtoZ (www.healthatoz.com), give people who are isolated a chance to mingle. That was the draw for a 31-year-old woman in the Ft. Worth area who says she suffers from prolonged depression and multiple personalities. The woman says she spends more than 15 hours a week in the forums hosted by Mental Health Net. The forums “have been a real good fit for her, because they give her confidence,” says her psychiatrist, William D. Lawrence. “It relieves the sense of isolation people get when they’re depressed.”
CHECK THESE SITES
– Mayo Clinic (www.mayohealth.org)–Its “Ask Mayo” section has doctors who will respond to queries–a quick, off-the-cuff second opinion.
– Medicine on the Net (www.mednet-i.com)–It has a Q-and-A section and links to other sites. First month is free, but then an annual subscription costs $49.
– New England Journal of Medicine (www.nejm.org)–Offers the complete text of some Journal articles and partial texts of others.
