The Eight-fold Path to Right Searching:
Web Searching Power in Health and Medicine

by P. F. Anderson, pfa@umich.edu.

Patients arrive with printouts in hand, -- sometimes they have wonderful information, sometimes questionable. Clinicians report both benefits and risks to patients who rely on the Internet for their health information. "Particular problems raised were patients' desire for new, generally-unavailable treatments: a cult of the new, engendered by our technophile society? Many other problems focused on alternative therapies." (Potts & Wyatt, 2002). Does this sound familiar? Likewise a number of studies suggest that some clinicians feel uncertain about their own Internet searching skills or how to appropriately redirect patients to better resources. This class will focus on improving Internet searching skills both for professional and consumer types of information, and will include strategies for working with patients for more effective inclusion of Internet information in the clinical visit.

CAVEAT: Please note that these web pages are intended to be used only as part of the instructional process, or as a resource for persons who have already taken the class.

(c)1995-2007, P. F. Anderson, pfa@umich.edu, all text, images, code, etcetera. Please request permission. Last Update: Friday, 16-Mar-2007 20:35:22 EDT
URL of current page: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~pfa/pro/8fold/med/