March 2001

 

Information and the Internet
Kathy Dothage dothagem@missouri.edu

Recently we have seen a virtual explosion of web sites on the internet that are dedicated to health information. According to the Harris Poll released in August , 2000, at least 98 million Americans took advantage of these resources in 1999 -- 44 million more people than in the previous year.

At the same time, searching the web for health information can be frustrating. There is a serious flaw with the information; people surfing the web have difficulty evaluating the information they obtain. This is becoming a serious problem. Many web sites contain inaccurate and even harmful information. In one study published in the journal Cancer, researchers found a web site that reported survival for a certain type of bone cancer as 5%, when it is actually 75%. With the plethora of information, finding the most appropriate web sites on any given subject can be a real challenge. But take heart. Help is on the way. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the American Medical Association, and several health coalitions such as, Health on the Net have recently released guidelines that can help health-conscious consumers navigate the web. Because the Internet has evolved so quickly and is still relatively new, it will take some time to refine and effectively implement these early efforts. But the principles they outline can help Internet users avoid pitfalls and access the information to help—not harm—with their health care.

Some good places to start are web sites operated and maintained by Government agencies, such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Department of Agriculture (DOA), and the National Institute of Health (NIH), as they are primarily interested in disseminating information. The content they offer is consistently thorough, well reviewed, and objective. MEDLINEplus, the consumer site maintained by the National Library of Medicine, provides easy access to MEDLINE, an up-to-date database of more than 4,300 biomedical journals and magazines, and 11 million references. Searches can be performed by subject, author, date, or publication.

MEDLINEplus also provides access to disease-specific information, a medical encyclopedia, several medical dictionaries, information about clinical trials, a comprehensive listing of clinical practice guidelines, and links.

Healthfinder, a site maintained by the Department of Health and Human Services, is also easy to use. It provides answers to specific health questions, with suggested links to additional government and non-government resources.

In the non-government area, nonprofit, professional, hospital, and medical school sites offer features similar to those found on many government web pages -- although the depth, quality, and breadth of the information presented varies widely.

Commercial sites, such as Medscape and WebMD, typically provide medical news, databases on various conditions and their treatments, and links.

Some organizations also sponsor newsgroups - electronic bulletin boards that focus on a particular problem. Health-related newsgroups can extend the benefits of traditional support groups to people in cyberspace. Anyone with a specific condition can post a message or ask a question to which other participants may respond.

All Internet guidelines stress that sites should state who owns and maintains them. The site's mission statement or business plan should also be available, along with relevant financial interests. Any advertising or online shopping areas should be clearly separated from editorial content. Both the original source of the information and the date it was first posted, and the last revised date should be displayed. Online experts should be identified by name, and their credentials and institutional affiliations clearly displayed. Finally, confidentiality should be protected. The site should have a privacy policy and offer you a way to prevent the use of personal information for any purpose you have not authorized. If the privacy policy is not clear, or if it is hard to find, use another site.

Finally, you might want to check out a site operated by Quackwatch, Inc., a nonprofit corporation. It tracks health-related frauds, myths, fads, and fallacies.

For a complete list of the sites and URLs mentioned above, visit the following site: www.hopkinsafter50.com.

Source: Lois Fitzpatrick, UMKC Aging Bulletin adapted from an article in the January 2001 issue of The Johns Hopkins Medical Letter, HEALTH AFTER 50.