The Office of Medical Informatics Presents

Your Health And The Internet

Online Presentation Slides: http://medinfo.ufl.edu/other/health/

What Can the Internet Do For You?

• Help You Find Information That Will Help You Stay Healthy
• Help You Find the Best Treatment for an Illness
• Help You Access the Latest Research Findings
• Help You Join Communities of Common Concern
• Help You Communicate with Your Doctor

Search Engines

• Internet Address Finder: http://www.iaf.net/
• WhoWhere?: http://www.whowhere.com/
• Alta Vista: http://altavista.digital.com/
• InfoSeek: http://www.infoseek.com/
• HotBot: http://www.hotbot.com/
• Lycos: http://www.lycos.com/
• WebCrawler: http://webcrawler.com/
• DejaNews: http://www.dejanews.com/

Problems With Search Engines

• Indexing Based on Words, Not Concepts
• No Controlled Vocabulary
• Criteria for Prioritization are Proprietary
• Time Lag Between Robot Visits
• Robots aren't Very Smart
• The Robot Exclusion Standard

Tips For Successful Searching

• Use Specific Medical Terms If You Know Them.
• Remember Generic Drug Names.
• Use at Least Two or Three Search Services on a Regular Basis. Become Familiar with Their Special Capabilities.
• Be Persistent, Try Multiple Queries Using Synonyms and Other Variations.
• Don't Try to Read Everything While You are Searching. Use the "Save As..." and Bookmark Features of Your Browser to Save Your Search Results for Later Analysis.

Specialized Directories

Directories Are The Best Alternative To Search Engines:

• Created And Maintained by Human Experts
• Much Higher Signal to Noise Ratio
• Catagorize and Organize Links for Quick Reference
• May Rank Resources for Quality and Usefulness

Directory Examples

• Hardin Meta Directory of Internet Health Sources: http://www.arcade.uiowa.edu/hardin-www/md.html
• Medical Matrix - Guide to Internet Clinical Medicine Resources: http://www.medmatrix.org/index.asp
• Martindale'S Health Science Guide http://www-sci.lib.uci.edu/~martindale/hsguide.html
• MedWeb - Electronic Publications: http://www.gen.emory.edu/medweb/keyword/electronic_publications.html
• Yahoo! - Health Top Level Directory: http://www.yahoo.com/health/
• Internet Resources for Family Physicians: http://medinfo.ufl.edu/cme/inet/inetres.html
• The Internet List Exchange: http://www.tile.net/tile/listserv/

Sampling of WWW Sites

• The AAFP Foundation Health Education Program: http://research.med.umkc.edu/aafp/pt_ed.html
• Health information for patients from the AAFP: http://www.aafp.org/family/patient/
• Clinical Pharmacology Drug Monographs: http://www.cponline.gsm.com/
• The Internet Drug Index (RxList): http://www.rxlist.com/
• OncoLink - University of Pennsylvania Cancer Resource: http://cancer.med.upenn.edu/
• Thrive Online: http://www.thriveonline.com/thrive/health/lookitup.html
• Shape Up America: http://www2.shapeup.org/sua/

How Do You Judge Qualitiy?

• Be Skeptical: "Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence." - David Hume (1748)
• Consider the Source
• Consider Who Recommended the Site
• Is there a date? How old is it?
• Discuss the Information with Your Doctor

MEDLINE

• PubMed: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/
• Internet Grateful Med: http://igm.nlm.nih.gov/

Emailing Your Doctor

Benefits of Email:

• More efficient than the telephone
• More frequent interaction possible
• Written record of recommendations

Potential Problems

Potential Reasons Not to Use Email:

• Loss of confidentiality
• Loss of non verbal cues
• No guarantee of delivery
• No documentation

Guidelines for Using Email

• Talk to your doctor about communicating via email
• Ask whether email will become part of your medical record
• Save a printed copy of specific instructions for your care
• Don't include highly personal information in email
• Encourage the use of encryption when it becomes available

Guidelines for the Clinical Use of Electronic Mail with Patients: http://www.amia.org/positio2.htm