Health Information Sites on the Internet

 

More and more of us are using the Internet to find answers to our health questions. Instant access and convenience make this method an obvious choice when a medical question comes up; finding and digging through a book or making an appointment with a health care professional just to ask a question seem oh so Twentieth Century.

 

But how do you know that the information you discover is valid and trustworthy---a particularly important question when it comes to your and your family’s health? There are several criteria as well as recent well-documented articles (yes, on the Web) that can bolster your confidence that what you read and download is, in fact, based on scientific evidence and solid science. You must first validate such referral sites themselves, and this takes a little advance knowledge and understanding about evaluating websites.  And that is the reason for this article.

 

Just what is “scientific evidence and solid science?” In the early part of this new century, medical experts have focused on “evidence-based” medical practice. This means that whatever diagnosis, recommendations and treatment you receive are---or should be---based on repeated, unbiased investigations on large populations to see if either a diagnostic method or a treatment plan or medication actually works…and that it’s not just based on the old “this worked for Mrs. Jones, so I’ll use it on Mr. Smith” method. “Solid science” means that the evidence for a given idea has come from performing experiments (either animal or human or both), analyzing the data, interpreting the analysis and drawing a conclusion. Once that is done, the whole process is repeated, not just by those who tested the hypothesis in the first place but by other, independent researchers who look to see if the original results are reproducible. (There’s a whole world---even a journal and website---based on irreproducible results.) And this is done over and over, which is why you see an article one week about something possibly being good for you and the next week bad for you. Once that is done numerous times, the weight of evidence determines whether or not the test or treatment or food or activity is recommended by the experts. Sometimes this takes years, even decades.

 

Meanwhile, what should you do?

 

Most useful and trustworthy health sites are those that are developed and maintained by medical experts who keep current with the findings of studies like the ones described above. And, not surprisingly, most of these are either university based or are run by respected agencies and organizations whose intentions and credentials are impeccable (and which are not trying to sell you something). Most of us can name a few of those, and to make it easier on you, the list and links below take you to a variety of sites (and publications) that meet the criteria just mentioned. This list* is not all-inclusive and a link to a site that helps you determine the validity of a health website is included so you can evaluate those that you discover and would like to evaluate.