The website www.webmd.com allows users to explore timely and valuable health information in a one-stop shop on the Internet. WebMD provides tools for managing your health and ways to “diagnose” your sickness to find out more about possible treatment options and whether the severity of your condition warrants a trip to the emergency room or doctor’s office. It also provides links to current health stories about the most-searched health topics on the Internet. With a staff of doctors and journalists, one can probably assume that WebMD is legit. Well, I will tell you that WebMD does provide a useful service to the billions of web users in the world, but it is by no means a bottom line in the quest for better health. My most recent personal experience with WebMD led me to the “conclusion” that I was having a heart attack, which I learned could not have been further from the truth after a visit to my doctor’s office. (I do, however, need to quit smoking.)
This article is intended to inform the readers of Associated Content of the usefulness and usability of WebMD. The home page of WebMD features a list of the top 12 most-searched health topics, which currently includes such ailments as shingles, menopause, genital warts and multiple sclerosis. In addition, the home page of WebMD has a section devoted to the latest headlines in health news, a symptom checker, a link to the WebMD weight loss clinic and A-Z guides, which is where a user will attempt to diagnose themselves using the search guide. You can browse an A-Z guide of health topics, prescription and medication information, symptoms and medical tests, among others.
When searching for information regarding a health ailment, such as athlete’s foot, WebMD takes the user to a content page with areas regarding the cause, symptoms, what increases your risk, when you should call a doctor, home treatment, prevention, medications and references. It is a thorough overview of the health problem, and I was glad to see that under most topics, WebMD urges the user to call their doctor. They also warn about the potential problems that can occur when you try to treat yourself at home. I was also happy to notice that for severe, life-threatening conditions, WebMD doesn’t even attempt to provide any information regarding home treatment. They simply refer you to your physician (if you don’t have one, WebMD also provides ways of finding a doctor in your area). All of these characteristics help to lend credibility to the site.
Another feature of WebMD are the blogs and discussion boards moderated by physicians. The blogs currently the most popular are anxiety and stress management, healthy children and pregnancy. The best part of this WebMD feature is that the moderating doctors link headlines from today’s news to some diseases and disorders to help educate. For example, Dr. Patricia Farrell (who appeared on Anderson Cooper 360 to discuss the case of the two recently recovered missing boys, Ben Ownby and Shawn Hornbeck) talked about Stockholm Syndrome in her article about the boys. WebMD discusses such psychological ailments as well as physical health problems on its site.
In order to “diagnose” yourself using WebMD, you can either go to the A-Z guide on symptoms or simply type in one or more of your symptoms in the search box. For example, a search on headaches and chest pain leads you to the topic hypertension, as well as migraines and neck problems and injuries. This is where the problem comes in: symptoms can alert you to several different topics, and in some cases, it may be hard to narrow down the health ailment. This is why surfing on WebMD is no substitute for a trip to your doctor’s office.
WebMD is a useful, user-friendly site for learning about prevalent health topics in the world and learning about some common issues, like weight loss and headaches. You can also learn home treatment options for things like dandruff and athlete’s foot. However, for the instances when you have more than one symptom, it is imperative that you call your physician to correctly diagnose your condition. WebMD is not a substitute for in-person health care.
