Health care information on the Internet

Health care information on the Internet: now there’s a subject that gets my attention.

Harris Interactive, a market research company, recently conducted an international survey of Internet users who seek health information. In the four countries surveyed – the U.S., France, Germany and Japan – they found that people who use the Internet as a source to research health concerns think that the information they receive is trustworthy, of good quality and easy to understand.

That’s the good news.

The news that I found troubling is that the majority of users in three of those countries (the U.S., France and Japan) believe that the government should regulate health content on the Internet.

I spend quite a bit of time reviewing health related web sites, so I know there’s a good deal of information out there that’s suspect. But the idea of the government regulating the Internet information I have access to is like saying the government should regulate what books ought to be available to me. I think it’s my right to have access to all information and all books, good or bad, because I trust myself to make informed choices on my own without the benefit of government intervention.

I also find it hard to fathom why people who think something is trustworthy, of good quality and easy to understand would want to see it regulated. Do they really imagine that the guidance of a slow-moving bureaucracy would improve the quality and make it even more trustworthy? (Or, more likely, was it how the question was asked)

Meanwhile, as long as I’ve got my knives out, I also have a bone to pick with the folks at Harris Interactive who have coined a special phrase to describe those of us who look for health information on the Internet: cyberchondriacs. It’s catchy, it’s cute, but it’s very condescending. And because it draws from the word “hypochondriac,” it also implies that we’re just slightly off our rockers.

We’re not “chondriacs” of any kind – hypo or cyber. We’re Internet users who care about our health, both as individuals and as a community. And we certainly don’t need the government to “protect us” by deciding what information is good for us.

To Your Good Health,

Jenny Thompson
Health Sciences Institute

Sources:
“Health Info on Web Should be Regulated, Users Say” Reuters Health, 6/13/02

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