Patients heal themselves online

["Hamaker, Chuck" <cahamake@email.uncc.edu>]

subject: Patients heal themselves online

http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040803-070331-9673r.htm=20

The Web: Patients heal themselves online
By Gene Koprowski
United Press International

... From Annapolis to Anaheim, more patients are taking control of their
healthcare situations via the Internet. They are searching out information
on cancer, heart disease, and other afflictions, and many times, when
motivated by their own illness, are finding cutting-edge medical research
online their personal physician has not yet received.

"That's a good thing," Dr. Jay Brooks, chairman of the hematology and
oncology department at Ochsner Clinic Foundation in Baton Rouge, La., told
UPI. "I encourage patients to do that. In fact, I give a list of 25
helpful medical Web sites that we also recommend that every new patient
looks at."

Research by the Boston Consulting Group shows patients who use the
Internet frequently are up to three times more likely to take an action
that affects their diagnosis -- and treatment.

The primary problem for patients, however, is that finding good, solid
medical and health information is sometimes tricky online. "There's a lot
of misinformation out there," Dr. Jack Cassell, an urologist, who
practices in Mount Dora, Fla., near Orlando, told UPI.

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