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Web Is Becoming One-Stop Shopping for Health Help
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Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 | 3 Online support groups, for example, allow people to gather information and communicate with others who have a similar problem while retaining their anonymity. "You don't have to participate," Mallin said. "People don't even have to know you're there."
However, both Goldberg and Mallin voiced concerns, too.
Goldberg wants to see large-scale studies of the effectiveness of these online programs before they are pursued to such an extent that they supplant regular modes of health care.
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"When there's a concern about cost containment, we have to make sure the cost containment occurs within the context of quality care," she said. "This is a great idea, but I don't think we're 100 percent there yet."
Mallin worries about people getting bad information from Web sites.
"The biggest worry everyone has about health information on the Web is how accurate it is," he said. "I always ask my patients to run something by me they've read on the Internet or on one of those chat sites."
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on ways to live healthily.
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Copyright © 2009 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.
Last updated 8/16/2009
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SOURCES: Nieca Goldberg, M.D., clinical associate professor of medicine and medical director, Women's Heart Program, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York City; Robert Mallin, M.D., professor, Department of Family Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, S.C.
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