Remember when you were a kid and you got sick? Did your Mom bring out the huge medical encyclopedia to try and determine what was wrong and if she should take you to the doctor? Well, today’s moms still want to figure out what’s wrong with their kids, but we have a different way of finding out.

We look on the internet. Websites like WebMD allow us to look up our symptoms and get an idea of what might be wrong. Or, if we already know the condition in question, we can learn all sorts of information about that illness, such as treatment, prevention and prognosis. WebMD helps people manage their health care from the privacy of their homes, helping them to learn how to prevent illnesses and helping them decide when to seek treatment.
While WebMD and other websites like it have certainly brought about a breakthrough in how we manage our health, there are certainly more to come. Consider some of the other medical information on the web and how it might help you manage your health in the years to come.

• Get ratings on doctors before you choose one – Websites like Healthgrades allow you to find out how other patients rate a doctor before we visit them. Not only will this help patients to get valuable information before they choose a doctor, but it will hold doctors accountable for providing good bedside manner and good customer service from their offices as well as good medical treatment. You can also see rankings on hospitals and dentists too. In addition, sites like HealthDirector allow you to verify doctors’ accreditations.

• Get follow up from your doctor via email – Many doctors today are finding that there simply aren’t enough hours in a day to see all the patients they need to see. So, they’re using the internet and email to reduce the number of visits patients need. For example, when you visit the doctor because you’re sick, you may get to spend more time with the doctor. But, instead of a follow up appointment in two weeks, you may have an online chat with your doctor or exchange emails instead of an in person visit, as long as you’re not having any problems. You may schedule appointments, ask questions and get prescription refills this way, too.

• Buy your prescriptions online – Online pharmacies, like Drugstore.com are already popular. However, with healthcare reform about to be a fact of life, they are likely to become even more popular, as they are likely to be able to provide the best pricing, and they can send your regular prescriptions to you on schedule without you having to request them every time. Nothing could be more convenient.

Healthcare is going to see some major changes in the next few years, with all the reform we’re about to see. There’s no doubt that the internet will be at the forefront of some of these changes. Hopefully this great technology that has helped all of us so much already will make us better informed about our healthcare and make getting that information more convenient, too.

P. Zerkle writes about how to obtain your Master in Health Informatics.

Tags: Health Information

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 18th, 2010 at 4:12 pm and is filed under Our Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.