Here’s a Site for Sore Eyes, Ears, Nose . . .
I’ve been searching the Web for the “perfect” health site; that is, one where you can turn for solid, reliable, detailed information about diseases and other health conditions. In past weeks, this column has mentioned several excellent general health sites, including Mayo Health Oasis, OnHealth and Mediconsult, but I have yet to find that perfect site.
So just what am I looking for in this site of perfection on health conditions? I want to be able to look up a medical condition, but not just a list of the 25 or 50 most common conditions. The site should include reliable and trustworthy information that I can understand, but should give me more than just the “basics” of a particular condition.
I also want to find answers that I did not get from my doctor, whether it was because I felt rushed or unsure of which questions to ask. Ideally, I’d like to find information that would help me talk with my doctor as an informed patient, raising questions that he or she may not have mentioned.
But while my quest for perfection continues, I’ve found a site that comes close: Medscape (https://www.medscape.com.) Although the site is designed primarily for physicians, includes advertising and is loaded with so much information it could make your head spin, the positives outweigh any negatives.
The site’s designers, who have years of Internet and health experience, have created a thoughtful and well-designed site. (In fact, Medscape recently was redesigned to be more consumer-friendly.) And the wealth of information on this site usually means you won’t need to go to other sites to find what you’re looking for.
As a health consumer, I want to at least have access to whatever my doctor is reading. I searched the site for information on human growth hormone deficiency, a condition that my 5-year-old son was recently diagnosed with. My discussion with his doctor was brief, and I was left unsatisfied. (He told my husband and me that we should come in later for a visit and he would answer all our questions and discuss treatment options.)
Searching Medscape, I found some articles that I could read--and understand. That left me feeling a lot less helpless and, in fact, empowered.
Medscape claims its collection of peer-reviewed, full-text articles is the largest of its kind on the Web. Through the site, you can search more than 100 participating health journals, the Web in its entirety, or Medline, the medical abstracts database of the National Library of Medicine, or NLM. You can access Medline directly at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed. You should definitely check out NLM’s Web site and its related resources, and bookmark the address: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/.
Medscape charges no fees, although the site does require you to complete a short registration process. If you’re concerned about providing your name, birthday and ZIP code, read the member privacy statement at https://medscape.com/Home/Help/Registration/PrivacyPolicy.html.
The chairman of the site’s executive committee assured me that the information is only used to better target editorial and advertising content. They will not provide names or e-mail addresses to any third party without your explicit permission. Medscape’s registration features allow you to create your own personalized home page, “My Medscape,” with such topics as women’s health, pediatrics, managed care, primary care or cardiology. And it’s easy to change your profile to add or subtract other topics. But if you’re still concerned about providing personal information, you can always go to the NLM’S Medline for a more anonymous experience. One of the great advantages of the Internet, however, is the ability to provide a personalized and, thus, more useful experience.
On Medscape, you’ll also find original articles on selected topics and access to an extensive drug database, which lets you search by condition, drug or side effects. I searched for osteoporosis and drugs, for example, and found a list of some drugs that could cause osteoporosis.
The site also offers book reviews, personalized stock profiles, conference listings and e-mail newsletters. Remember, I warned you that this site was chock-full of information! My suggestions: Use it as you would any other Web site or information resource; you wouldn’t read the entire encyclopedia, either, so surf this site to find what you need.
So while Medscape may not be the perfect site I’ve been looking for, it is the best I’ve seen for information on specific medical conditions. Perhaps that explains why it has more than 1 million registered users, about one in four of whom is a consumer like you and I.
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Marla Bolotsky is managing editor and director of online information for the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. She welcomes suggestions of Web sites for review and can be reached by e-mail atmarla.bolotsky@latimes.com.
Your Health Online runs every other Monday in Health.
