What is webmd considered

However, the problem with this paradigm shift circles around two skeptical observations:. Well, according to Wikimedian and librarian Phoebe Ayers , online communities like Wikipedia depend on honorable but often times anonymous community members to continuously write and edit content: a liberty that does not require educational qualifications from contributors, such as college degrees , on the topics that they are editing or writing about.

This can be rather problematic for websites containing health information read by ordinary viewers. Especially those whom are unaware, and often times dependent on, the free and digestible health information these communities provide. Despite all this ambiguity, integrity remains amongst a few common info-seeking websites, including WebMD.

Remember when we talked about web developers using Web 2. According to their website, WebMD seeks out sponsorship and advertisements from relevant manufacturers to provide health information. They claim this form of advertisement enables them to offer their content at no cost.

She searches Google, finding forum discussions about painful procedures and cancer diagnoses. That could be enough to scare her out of making the phone call. If a second diagnosis opinion or alternative treatment plan is just a mouse click away, how do you know that your doctor is right about your condition and care?

Leverage Expertise to Your Advantage For better or worse, the Internet, and its ever-growing mass of content, is here to stay. The key is to become the expert outlet your patients look to for information.

Patients need convenient access to health information. Opening a new medical practice? Click to download our free "new medical practice checklist". And it could easily give patients a skewed view of their treatment options.

University of Michigan's Sandeep Vijan thought WebMD's cholesterol treatments page was "oversimplified" and "often phrased in an overly frightening way.

Again, Vijan noted a range in the quality of the site's information. Some of it "may be fine for an initial introduction for patients," he said. Within the group of doctors I surveyed, some spoke highly of the site. Of the page on psoriasis treatments , Robert Dellavalle, the chief of the dermatology service at Denver's VA medical center, said he didn't spot any errors and thinks WedMD "is doing a great job for a free online publication. All in all, is WebMD trustworthy?

It depends on which page you land on and what you're looking for. The site may be an okay starting point for information, like Wikipedia.

But the information isn't always reliable, and unlike Wikipedia, the site's business model relies on the same industry it reports on. If you want independent information about drugs, check out the Informulary out of Dartmouth. I've written about it here. For all medical questions, UpToDate is a great source. It's mostly paywalled though patient information summaries are free, and again, it has no advertising. Another nonprofit, Cochrane , is also a solid source with easy-to-understand, "plain language" summaries of clinical evidence.

I'd go to all these sites before WebMD, but none is a substitute for seeing a doctor you trust. PS: Free study idea for researchers — please follow up on my mini survey and test the reliability of medical websites that millions of patients rely on. They also updated their page on weight loss supplements to reflect new information from Natural Medicine, a source for evidence on complementary and alternative medicine.

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By choosing I Accept , you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. Reddit Pocket Flipboard Email. They found WebMD, along with its sister site Medscape, were the top recipients of industry dollars: Top medical communication company recipients of company grants. JAMA They're not alone in that regard. When I visited the page on weight loss pills , an advertisement on meal replacement shakes popped up, as did an ad for the drug Qsymia — which is among the six drugs featured in the article: WebMD's diet pill page.

What independent doctors think of WebMD But those were just my observations after spending a few hours on the site.