Help in Navigating Health Care Web Sites
By: John Langone
New York Times, January 15, 2002
Healthcare Online for Dummies," by Howard and
Judi Wolinsky, Hungry Minds, $21.99.
"Dr. Ian Smith's Guide to Medical
Websites," by Dr. Ian K. Smith, Random House, $12.95.
As any Web-surfing patient and potential patient
knows, the Internet overflows with medical information. Much of it is
accurate, clear and reliable, but some is superficial and contradictory
and in some cases can be plain wrong.
Or, as the authors of "Healthcare Online for
Dummies" put it, "created by dot-con artists who are out to
fleece you." How to evaluate the Web sites, and how to find the best
and most informative medical resources is daunting. These books make the
task easier.
Readers familiar with the "For Dummies"
series would undoubtedly choose the Wolinskys' book for its breezy style,
cartoons, humorous icons and sample Web pages over Dr. Smith's, a more
compact, no- frills, but no less valuable resource.
Each covers essentially the same ground, from
Alzheimer's and alternative medicine to women's health issues, and each
provides comprehensive indexes and a Top 10 listing of sites.
Dr. Smith, the medical correspondent for NBC's
"Today," rates his sites on a 1 to 3 scale (3 representing the
highest rating) according to the legitimacy of their sources, ease of
navigation, ability to provide personal answers and overall assessment.
DermatologyChannel .net, for example, gets a 3-3-3-3,
while Yahoo! Health on Autoimmune Disorders rates a 1-3-1-1. ("It's
unclear who is actually providing the original content," Dr. Smith
writes of the Yahoo! site, "and consumers would be better served with
disclosure.")
The Headache and Migraine Information Site gets a
3-2-2-2, and the comment: "Right off, this site isn't friendly, but
it's helpful. Grab a comfy chair because the site is rather slow."
Among Dr. Smith's Top 10 general sites are About.com,
"one of the greatest collections of information on diseases and
conditions on the Net"; bestdoctors.com; HealthAtoZ.com; a government
portal called healthfinder.gov; intelihealth.com, with Harvard Medical
School consumer health information tied to the site; and webmd.com, a site
divided for different audiences: patients, doctors, physician assistants
and health teachers.
"For Dummies" is far broader in scope,
going way beyond the diseases with its treatment of how to find "Dr.
Right," navigate the health insurance maze, research and buy
medicines, research a disease step-by-step and find the best hospital.
The directions for accessing the sites are detailed
but clear, perfect for people the authors refer to as intrepid searchers
"who love the hunt." For instance, the online medical
encyclopedia the authors like the best is Adam at the National Library of
Medicine's Medlineplus.com.
Simple steps characteristic of the book provide a
wealth of information: open Medlineplus and go to the A to Z index; click
the first letter of the name of the disease you are interested in; find
the disease and click.
Sections also cover searching for specialists and how
to check their certification, how to get a hospital's "report
card," how to report Medicare fraud and how to find the best in roots
and herbs and hands-on treatments.
The "10 Must-See" health sites cover the
well-known, like MayoClinic.com, as well as sites like kidshealth.org,
www.goaskalice .Columbia.edu (on health in general), oncolink.upenn.edu
(cancer), quitnet.org (to stop smoking) and breastfeeding.com.
The authors also include a "10 Virtual Health
Fair Booths" compilation that provides online tests and quizzes
created to alert consumers to potential problems and to motivate them to
see doctors.
Using these, people can determine how well they are
handling stress, and their risk for heart disease, cancer and stroke,
among others.
The information in the two books is trustworthy,
something that not every health site can boast.
As the Wolinskys write: "Choosing your online
health information resource is like choosing your doctor. You wouldn't
just go to any doctor, and you may get opinions from several."
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