Healthcare 2.0: The Social Life Of Health Information

pewinternet.org:

Americans' pursuit of health takes place within a widening network of both online and offline sources. Whereas someone may have in the past called a health professional, their Mom, or a good friend, they now are also reading blogs, listening to podcasts, updating their social network profile, and posting comments. And many people, once they find health information online, talk with someone about it offline.

This Pew Internet/California HealthCare survey finds that technology is not an end, but a means to accelerate the pace of discovery, widen social networks, and sharpen the questions someone might ask when they do get to talk to a health professional. Technology can help to enable the human connection in health care and the internet is turning up the information network's volume.

Read the whole story: pewinternet.org

Comments

[Lynne2363]

03:35 PM on 06/11/2009

I have not found MDs to be helpful at all. They are addicted to surgery and drugs, both often toxic to the body. Most of my reliable information has been obtained from the "alternative medicine" community. Have we forgotten that this was "mainstream" medicine for thousands of years? Good luck to all of you who insist on taking more drugs and having more surgeries.