On alternate universes and Dr. Google
The Old Gray Lady was (quite possibly) not meant to be consumed hurriedly, face buried in the nighttime glow of an iPhone while walking the streets of San Francisco. But that is exactly how we found this highly fascinating article in The New York Times titled “Logging On for a Second (or Third) Opinion”.
The article is a general primer on the explosion of the online health information category and some of the tools and sites that consumers might be interested in. Here is a passage, however, that we found particularly interesting (emphasis ours):
“But paging Dr. Google can lead patients to miss a rich lode of online resources that may not yield to a simple search. Sometimes just adding a word makes all the difference. Searching for the name of a certain cancer will bring up the Wikipedia entry and several information sites from major hospitals, drug companies and other providers. Add the word “community” to that search, Ms. Fox said, and “it’s like falling into an alternate universe,” filled with sites that connect patients.”
Now, if you quiver at the thought of entering alternate universes much like we do, give RightHealth a crack. You don’t have add words to your search, you won’t have to worry about missing out community information. Or doctor-reviewed articles. Or videos. Or slideshows. Or documents (not kidding). Or medical journal abstracts. In one page.
And before we start to grate on you, here’s the link to our cancer topic page: . You be the judge, we welcome feedback as always: http://www.righthealth.com/topic/breast%20cancer.