Online Resources
By Rear Adm. Joyce Johnson, D.O., M.A.

There’s a lot of medical information on the Web—how can I tell what’s reliable?

It’s estimated that more than 20,000 Internet sites provide health information and that one sixth of the American population uses a computer to access medical information online. If you search for a broad
topic such as diabetes, there might be more than half a million pages of information available online.

The Web is a fast and efficient way to get current medical information. Unfortunately, some online medical information is biased to sell a product or promote another agenda. The challenge is to get accurate and reliable information efficiently.

The easiest way to get dependable information is to know the Web sites you visit. Toward that end, the federal government has created http://firstgov.gov, a “gateway” to the Internet. At
http://firstgov.gov/Citizen/Topics/Health.shtml, consumers can access a number of federal departments and agencies as well as other Web sites that offer health-related information.

For example, the National Institutes of Health site provides information on each institute and the diseases it studies. The National Cancer Institute posts information, including how to access a clinical trial. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offer information about public health, including bioterrorism. Associations and foundations such as the American Heart Association (www.americanheart.org) and the American Stroke Association (www.strokeassociation.org) provide disease-specific information.

TRICARE and private health insurance companies have their own Web sites providing health information to members. MOAA’s Web Base (www.moaa.org) also has links to reliable medical information sites.

Disease-specific chat rooms and support groups also have evolved online. The participants usually are patients, often from across the country or around the world. Exchanging personal experiences can be helpful, but because these groups offer primarily anecdotal information, they have some limitations.
Many health products are advertised on the Internet. Extraordinary health claims such as “Eat all you want! Block the starch and lose weight!” are not true. Remember, be realistic when evaluating what you read on the Web. A claim that seems too good to be true probably is.

The Web can be a great resource for medical information, provided you are an educated consumer. Choose reliable sites, ask your health provider for additional advice, and never use the Web as a substitute for a visit to a health care professional.