Using Internet Based Applications For Self-Care Has Its Problems

[Richard Corcoran]

Many of you, like me, may have thought about what each of us can do live strong, healthy, productive lives. We all now know the basics. It’s really a rather short list of seven things – don’t smoke, eat less, exercise more, sleep well, keep thinking, drink two glasses of shiraz every day, and don’t ignore your symptoms. I suspect each one of us might modify this list some, but you get the idea.

Admittedly, some of these things are easier than others. My advice is to never, ever smoke :mad:, eat lean and balanced :), go to the gym first :(, drink the shiraz next :D, reflect on your day a bit :cool:, and then go to sleep ;). But that may be just for me. The really tricky one is the last - what to do when you get a symptom :confused:?

Many of you, like me, may have searched about the web for sites that might be useful in helping you to take care of yourself. Google “internet self-care”. You’ll find more than a million websites. I just did and I found 1,000, 020 of them. How do you know which application to use? How to use it? What’s reliable? What isn’t? What to do with what you learn? When to call your physician (I’m assuming that you all have a trusted PCP)? etc.- so many questions, so few answers.

Fortunately, there are people that are beginning to develop an evidence-base to come up with answers. Click on the following link to read about some of the current problems and some of the future potential for internet self-care applications published recently in the Journal of Medical Internet Research - http://www.jmir.org/2008/2/e13/ (http://www.jmir.org/2008/2/e13/)

Hmmmmmm……..

[dhowell]

As a clinician, I have a great many doubts about self diagnosis via the internet. When I see a patient, I "see" the patient...what their breathing sounds like, their skin color, do they look depressed or in pain, are they moving okay, does their breath smell unusual, etc. This all happens within the first 60 seconds, it's after that I start to ask questions and combined with all that data, I can then start to think of what might be wrong. There is so much that can be missed when there is no objective assessment being made, just a report of subjective symptoms. I think that as an adjunct the internet can provide good advice on generalized conditions, but it cannot replace a face to face encounter with a credentialed and licensed health care professional. I also believe that it can foster an attitude of denial when there is a serious medical condition that the patient does not want to acknowledge and is "shopping" for a diagnosis to back up their contention that "nothing is wrong, it's just (fill in the blank)".