Many Seek Second Opinions From Health Sites and Online Communities - NYTimes.com
Web 2.0 has certainly changed the way Medicine is practiced.
Now, if you are a lazy Doctor, your patient might come to you with more knowledge about his own disease than you do!! I cant help feeling amused when i think of some of my classmates and how they would be coping with today's super-informed patients.
And its not just about the information available to the patient.
Its also about the support.
Its easy to join any forum/group of people having the same illness as you. Have a Migraine? Log onto the headache blog and find out how other people are coping with theirs. Want to talk to someone about your migraine? Join a chatroom. Want some advice from a doctor? Log onto the Live chat service of Organized wisdom. Want to know more about the drugs the doctor prescribed you? Check it here. The options available are endless. Gone are the days when the doctor simply prescribed you acetaaminophen and sent you home.
My only crib is the lack of such resources and support in the Hindi language.Hindi is spoken by almost 500 million people and is the third most spoken language in the world. Native speakers of Hindi dialects account for 41% of the Indian population.And yet, we have no such services available for this huge under served population.
I am hoping to soon start similar services in Hindi, encompassing the whole patient education and support services. I hope to do this through RAKSHA, a non profit organization working for democratization of knowledge and health. This is a huge task and will take time. But then, SOMEONE has to do it. Why not me? :)
Read the original article here.
Web 2.0 has certainly changed the way Medicine is practiced.
Now, if you are a lazy Doctor, your patient might come to you with more knowledge about his own disease than you do!! I cant help feeling amused when i think of some of my classmates and how they would be coping with today's super-informed patients.
And its not just about the information available to the patient.
Its also about the support.
Its easy to join any forum/group of people having the same illness as you. Have a Migraine? Log onto the headache blog and find out how other people are coping with theirs. Want to talk to someone about your migraine? Join a chatroom. Want some advice from a doctor? Log onto the Live chat service of Organized wisdom. Want to know more about the drugs the doctor prescribed you? Check it here. The options available are endless. Gone are the days when the doctor simply prescribed you acetaaminophen and sent you home.
My only crib is the lack of such resources and support in the Hindi language.Hindi is spoken by almost 500 million people and is the third most spoken language in the world. Native speakers of Hindi dialects account for 41% of the Indian population.And yet, we have no such services available for this huge under served population.
I am hoping to soon start similar services in Hindi, encompassing the whole patient education and support services. I hope to do this through RAKSHA, a non profit organization working for democratization of knowledge and health. This is a huge task and will take time. But then, SOMEONE has to do it. Why not me? :)
Read the original article here.
We have already started a Hindi wiki at www.myhealthpedia.in !
ReplyDeleteDr Aniruddha Malpani, MD
Medical Director
HELP - Health Education Library for People
Excelsior Business Center,
National Insurance Building,
Ground Floor, Near Excelsior Cinema,
206, Dr.D.N Road, Mumbai 400001
Tel. No.:65952393/65952394
Helping patients to talk to doctors !
Information Therapy is the Best Prescription !
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