Medical Sites Review

I an reviewing two medical sites here. The first is a peer support site for cancer survivors family and friends called ONCOChat. The second is called WebMD and gives information on a range of diseases and ailments.

ONCO chat clearly states in its opening paragraph that "We don't offer medical advice or professional counseling", rather it is for giving and receiving of support between cancer survivors and their families. When I looked more closely at the chat function I had to agree to terms and conditions before use, one of which was that anyone lurking for more than 20 minutes would be kicked out! Obviously they don't want a site full of lurkers, though I decided to go lurk for a bit and check out how the site is actually being used. After waiting a painfully long time for it to connect, that included a few time outs, I concluded connecting wouldn't happen through there web based method, and I'm not going to the trouble of downloading there software for the other connection method, just so I can lurk in there for a few minutes!

The WebMD site on the other hand gives the initial appearance of providing medical advice and information. However after scrolling down their web site, on the bottom line in small print, well below the last of the interesting stuff that most people would look at I found this statement "WebMD does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.". This was the only disclaimer I found on the site and despite the disclaimer they have a search function to search by symptom! Very interesting for a site that claims not to assist with diagnosis! When trying to verify the quality of the site I came across a page that had details of the sites experts, each with a ling string of letters after their name and a specific are of expertise, but very little additional information. A quick overview on some of the topics I feel I know more about, had me coming to the conclusion that the site only provides basic information on topics, though covers an extensive range of topics.

I think that sites like these have affected the health and medical industry by shifting power to the patients. They allow people to find out some information about their conditions online, wither through online 'experts' or through talking to peers with similar issues. They allow for people to look up 'facts' after the visit to their doctor and verify the information given to them They allow people to better equip themselves to question their doctor on both diagnosis and treatments given, and finally they allow people to know there are others out their in the same boat, that they are not alone.