The internet allows patients to be more informed about their diagnoses that ever before. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, at least seventy-five percent of all internet users today are looking for health information online. There are so many websites dedicated to healthcare that five categories been established. They consist of general interest, medical research sites, patient sites, disease-specific sites, and web tools. Each of these categories fulfill different purposes, but nonetheless offer a patient information and support that did not exist a generation ago. Along with useful information, patients can find communities online of people with the same illnesses, which offers information on another level. This shows how technology affects culture; doctors may not be regarded anymore as the one who “knows it all.” People no longer solely depend on the physician’s word. We now live in a culture where patients are able to educate themselves about their illnesses from other sources, perhaps even gaining more insight on their illness that the physician who diagnosed them.
Lisa Khakshouri
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/health/30online.html?_r=1&ref=technology&oref=slogin
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