Handful of sites top search list for medical info

Most traffic goes to a few sites -- including some generated by people with no official expertise.

By Pamela Lewis Dolan, AMNews staff. March 19, 2007.

Health information on the Internet has seemed as untamed and difficult to navigate as the Wild West. But one study shows that patients are settling down in that frontier, relying mostly on the same few sites to learn about a particular condition or drug.

The study, released in February by Envision Solutions, a New York-based health marketing company, found these sites are run by various sources, from associations to drug manufacturers to retailers. But the research also showed plenty of users flocking to so-called user-generated media -- sites, including those maintained by physicians, with no official ties or formal organizational oversight.

Envision's study also looked at which sites appeared on the first three pages of a Google or Yahoo search for specific health terms, with the company determining that sites on those pages are the ones patients will most likely check out -- thus making it fairly easy for physicians to gauge Web activity in their specialty.

Physicians "need to be aware of where people are getting this information and make sure it's accurate," said Fard Johnmar, founder of Envision Solutions.

Others say physicians are better served by recommending sites they trust to patients rather than monitoring the Web. However, some physicians say it is a good idea to talk to patients about their Internet research. Doctors might even find their patients can steer them to some new, reliable sites, said American Psychiatric Assn. Vice President Nada Stotland, MD, MPH, a professor of psychiatry and obstetrics-gynecology at Rush Medical College in Chicago.