14 DAY TRIAL // Over the years, as more and more homes started getting access to computers and the Internet, a shift was recorded in the classical sources people turned to in order to get their medical information. Rather than visiting the doctor's office, many people now prefer browsing for a response to their questions online, where they rely on their anonymity to avoid embarrassing situations, if that's the case. But the problem is that, lately, even doctors have begun to turn to the Internet for help, and not always to dedicated and established medical websites.
According to a June study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, it would appear that more than 61 percent of American citizens use the Internet for retrieving information about their conditions, and possible cures. Significant parts of the population also shop online for drugs, from untrusted sources, which can prove to be very detrimental to their health in the end.
“My overall impression is that the quality of health information varies wildly, almost ridiculously wildly. If [a site] is treated as an authoritative source, and there's evidence that it isn't, then it's potentially dangerous,” Nova Southeastern University Pharmacologist Kevin Clauson says, quoted by NewScientist.
Wikipedia is often the most visited source for medical information, and its content is accessed by doctors and patients alike. But professional investigations of the data listed on its pages show that, in some cases, serious omissions are made, which could have drastic influences on certain individuals' conditions. Some side-effects of drugs are not listed, and some of their interactions with other medication are skipped as well, investigations in recent years have revealed.
That is not to say that all data are wrong. The site has enforced a drastic clean-up policy in recent years, which has had the effect of removing factual errors on the largest part of its content. However, several medical corporations have been caught trying to remove some of the side-effects that their medicine have on the body. This makes Wikipedia somewhat reliable, but under some reserves, and an established source of medical data, such as the US National Library of Medicine's MedlinePlus website, should always be consulted as well.