eHealth » health information

Blue Zones – Can studying centenarians teach us about wellness?

John Sharp — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 03:07:17 +0000

Last week I heard National Geographic writer Dan Buettner talk about Blue Zones - communities with unusual high percentage of centenarians. Can this type of study be instructive to a healthy lifestyle in urban America? I was skeptical. But in the end, I bought the book and buy his Power Nine principles:

Move Naturally
Know Your Purpose
Down Shift
80% Rule
Plant Slant
Wine at 5
Family First
Belong
Right Tribe

It is encouraging to see these principles being applied to communities around the country.

If you would like to hear him speak, try this popular TED video:

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WebMD vs. MayoClinic.com – Reliable Medical Information

John Sharp — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 20:27:51 +0000

In an article in the New York Times Magazine today, Virginia Heffernen discusses a Prescription of Fear. She contrasts the WebMD approach to health information with that of MayoClinic.com, opposing what she sees at a for-profit website with major funding from drug companies on the one hand with a respected non-profit medical institution on the other. In comparing the two sites on the topic of headache, for one thing, she uses a Google search to find content on the sites rather than the sites own search engine and then claims that one has advertising and drives uses to prescription usage while the other does not.

I tested this with the term Fibromyalgia. It turns out that both sites display an add from Pfizer on the landing page, MayoClinic also has ads by Google but WebMD did not. WebMD on its chapter on treatment includes 3 brand name drugs but also recommends physical therapy and medical marijuana. MayoClinic recommends lifestyle and home remedies, alternative medicine and coping and support but nothing about drug therapy.

MayoClinic advertising policy states that ”we accept advertising and sponsorship under strict guidelines” but does not state whether they have any control over the Google ads appearing on their pages. WebMD’s policy is extensive and states “under no circumstances will WebMD’s acceptance of any Advertisement be considered an endorsement of the product(s) and/or service(s).” Both sites are HON Code certified and WebMD also has eTrust and URAC shields.

So there may be something to WebMD suggesting drug treatment more often that MayoClinic, but the article fails to mention that MayoClinic.com is supported by advertising and in some cases has more ads per page than WebMD.

It should be noted that other medical institutions do not use advertising but provide reliable medical information from their own sources such as, Duke and Cleveland Clinic .

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Are Physicians Ready for Patients With Internet-Based Health Information?

John Sharp — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 21:35:54 +0000

This article appearing in the Journal of Medical Internet Research by a Canadian group of authors is a study looking at how physicians deal with a common phenomenon of the Internet Age: patients bringing Internet health information to their appointments.Themes include: “(1) perceived reactions of patients, (2) physician burden, and (3) physician interpretation and contextualization of information.” Generally, physicians found this information problematic and enough of it misinformation that it could cause distress and confusion.

Four conclusions:

physician awareness leading to acceptance of this information in the exam room as the norm
physician training in redirecting patients to recommended web resources
rewarding the time-pressed physician for competence in information technology (incentives)
patient education on how to search for information and the appropriate use of that information within patient-physician communication.

The need for strategies to address this challenge in physician-patient communication is essential. Prescribing health information is one tested approach. By physician approaches need testing as well.

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