Is The Internet A Reliable Source For Patient?
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Emri BGIs The Internet A Reliable Source For Patient?
Uploaded by
Emri BGIs the internet a reliable source for patient's knowledge?
In the online world today, we use the internet as a tool for a daily basis and to gain
knowledge. When we look up for information on the web, we do not truly know if we can
trust it and we can use it safely or not. As mentioned before in the project, the percentage of
people using the internet is growing fast in the last years. As a result, the information on the
web must be accurate so people won't get mistaken.
According to the National Institute on Aging, to find trustable sources on the web, we can use
the address link of the website and look at the host address (example.hostname) so we can
understand if the website is provided by the government (.gov) or if the information is taken
by university or educational college (.edu) or a commercial website (.com).
The problem about this subject is the information seeking on the internet when people do not
properly know how to seek for info in the web, they can find information which they think is
correct but actually, it's not. But the National Institute on Aging adds that "No information
should replace seeing a doctor or other health professional who can give you advice that
caters to your specific situation.".
The online websites can help patients by providing them information about their medical
problem so they will have a bit of knowledge on what they've got, but they should not rely
just on their online findings and should get professional advice as well. We can infer from the
statement of the National Institute on Aging that in any case, you should not trust online
advice completely and always doubt its reliability.
Another thing patient should pay notice, is the author of the article, whether it’s a
professional with enough knowledge and experience (for example a doctor or a professor), or
an individual who doesn’t rely on real sources or knowledge in his writing. The National
Institute on Aging also mentioned it's important to check the article date (older may mean
that the content it's irrelevant), and what is the website purpose (professional or commercial).
Also, the National Institute on Aging reminds us that we need to think with common sense
for example if they say that "one remedy will cure a lot of different illnesses". And also to
check twice the information (if two or more website advice or say the same thing, they
probably right).
However, Mihir Kothari and S. Moolani, from the Aditya Jyot Eye Hospital, Mumbai, clarify
that the information (reliability) is deferent between each site, and depends on the disease or
symptom the patients are looking for. For example, in the case of squint (eye disease), the
information on the internet is "incomplete and not reliable" regard the treatment. But M.
Kothari and S. Moolani, says that the fact you can look up on the internet for those problems
is already a good thing, and it had positive effects on patients.
In contrast, the information regarding the disease came from books and authentic research
papers. From study M. Kothari and S. Moolani have made, out of 10 websites, 4 sites had
information written by expertise, and 3 sites had unrelated information. Also, most of the
websites had a commercial interest. In addition to that, none of the 10 websites had answered
all 8 questions (that both M. Kothari and S. Moolani had points in table 1) which are basic
questions that patients should get answers to.
At the end of the study, M. Kothari and S. Moolani even encourage the patients to use the
internet as a reliable source and to search for knowledge," We encourage the patients to use
the internet to know more about their disease…". Farther more, in the School of Nursing in
the University of Southampton, researchers have found that sometimes the problem in the
reliability and quality is because the author of the website is crossing "boundary between
medical and other approaches to health". In which the info may start being irrelevant to the
patients and even confuse them.
In another study made by the School of Nursing in the University of Southampton, found that
from 41 websites only 4 sites featured reliable and relevant info to the patient's needs (in that
study cases it was childhood fever). But their findings show that: " These… suggest that
users were aware of the quality problem… ". What shows us that users can understand if
some information is good to them and they can differ from different information when
needed.
In my conclusion, the internet is not a reliable place to look up for information yet.
In most cases, we saw that the internet is not accurate enough for patients to get 100%
accurate information, and inexperienced people who want to find quick advice or help may
find they even more confused or might won't get the answer they were looking for. The
internet can provide good and accurate knowledge, but people need to be clever, check twice,
and doubt about internet reliability until the information there would be trustable in 100%.
Bibliography
https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/online-health-information-it-reliable
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1467-9566.00185
https://online.arbor.edu/blog/guide-finding-credible-medical-information-advice/
