Dear Internet: What Are These Itchy Bumps?

Katherine Mangu-Ward | August 4, 2009

Majorities of every demographic except the very old, the very poor, and the very...Hispanic, are hopping online to for health information:

These numbers are going to keep going up, too.

Two ways to read this: 

Optimistic, pro-technology approach: When it comes to health care, Americans are more resourceful than they're given credit for. Some of those 47 million uninsured are getting their health info somewhere other than a doctor's office. And the insured are using legit online medical sources as cheaper, better second opinions. Millions of quick googles of phrases like "strange itchy bumps" are saving us billions in health care spending, and rare diseases may diagnosed quickly with the right combo of search terms.

Pessimistic, Luddite approach: Sweet baby Jesus, have you ever looked up the answer to a health question online? People give terrible medical advice in those wisdom-of-crowds sites (i.e. the advice from Waffleluva and devine diva here at Yahoo! Answers). It's only going to make our national health care crisis worse, when everyone with a temperature of 99 degrees demands testing for viral hemorrhagic fever. Thank God we're about to get rolling on that whole health care rationing thing.

One place to get good medical advice online, courtesy of Megan McArdle: Things I Learned From My Patients

Comments

|8.4.09 @ 5:20PM|#

What are the percentages for White Hispanics and Black Hispanics? Does their data just get thrown out? Or do they all get lumped in with the generalized (Hispanic) category? Do Asians no longer exist? And when this study gets around to noticing them will the Hispanics among them be cleaved off too?

hmm|8.4.09 @ 5:28PM|#

Someone mentioned an online almost co-op doctor thingy in another thread months ago. I forgot the name, if I remember correctly it was in the NE. I'd see no problem with hopping on line to ask a question of a provider I pay. Actually such a plan, after the legal law suit bullshit is straightened out, seems like a really good idea and marketing tool.

|8.4.09 @ 5:41PM|#

i fall in the positive side. has been a real boon for my wife & myself. Do not know what web site she's used to look up Bell's Palsey when she was afflicted, or chemo-therapy for her grandmother, but the sites she's found have been reliable.

|8.4.09 @ 5:41PM|#

These sorts of sites will have to be shut down once we get single payer. The last thing we need are the pogues out there googling to dream up kinds of care they might think they need. The only source of health information needs to be the government. The government is the only source that can provide safe, approved medical information in a way people can understand The people just are not competant enough to get the information themselves.

If you want to know what is wrong with you, go to a government health clinic.

I am only half kidding. I am quite sure there are people out there, some of them in power, who think like this.

|8.4.09 @ 5:47PM|#

ANYBODY who believes ANYTHING from Yahoo! Answers deserves what they get.

|8.4.09 @ 5:48PM|#

And only graduates of F.U. (Federal University) will be allowed to practice medicine or blog about medicine. Reporting about national healthcare is right out, too.

MattXIV|8.4.09 @ 5:53PM|#

Yeah, but Yahoo answers is where stupid questions are asked by even stupider people and answered by stupidest people.

SpongePaul|8.4.09 @ 6:09PM|#

This is good, as most of us are educated enough to know not only what is wrong, but how to diagnosis it. IMHO i feel docors are no longer needed for daily things, a pharmist or a nP could do most anyhting a ped does. hospitals yes ers yes pedatricians not so much. I mean you have to spend $$$$ to get soemone to tell you things you alreadt know and charge you way to much for meds you know you need. Now most of us know when we have a sinus infection or a lung infection. instead of going to the store telling a pharmisits and letting him seel you some codiene syrup some antibiotics and some steriods, but NOO you know whats wrong but you go to the doctor, becuaes the goverment MAKES you if you want to heal yoursefl so thats 100+ with no insurance 20-25 if insurance, then you have to go to a pharmisct and get overpriced meds. when in all reality you should have been able to go tthe store and pick up antibiotics and cosdien sryup for 10 buck and gone home, instead of wasting a day when you already feel like shit with appoiments and spending 100.00 and such. The system needs change, but it needs less regulation and restrictions, we are not all poor farmers, humans have a pretty good idea about health nowadys and 99.9% of the time can self diagnos the most common problems.

SpongePaul|8.4.09 @ 6:10PM|#

FUCK MYDYSLEXIC SPELLING AND TYPING!!!!!!!!!

Jason S|8.4.09 @ 6:11PM|#

Most people who use the internet to get medical help know that Yahoo answers is not credible and would go to a site like Web MD. I think a rational person with a minor illness would make a better diagnois and come up with a better treatment many times, over going to the Doctor. Doctors are under time constaints and get to ask a limited # of questions and quickly determine a treatment.

|8.4.09 @ 6:28PM|#

Most people who use the internet to get medical help know that Yahoo answers is not credible and would go to a site like Web MD.

Yeah, but geez, am I the only person who does multi-tabbed browsing? If i wanted to research neurofibromatosis, I'd google it then open several of the most appealing or relevant tabs.

|8.4.09 @ 6:35PM|#

The internet is helpful, but. ...

There are LOTS OF DIFFERENT THINGS that can cause the same set of symptoms. In most cases, I've ended up seeing a doctor anyway because there's always some rare horrible life threatening thing that could theoretically be the cause, and you really need the blood and urine tests, etc., to make a determination.

Paul|8.4.09 @ 7:04PM|#

Hazel,

All true, except it's not just about the diagnosis end. It's the maintenance end as well. Once diagnosed with say, Celiac disease, you can find all sorts of information on line regarding living with the disease, and more comprehensive than your doctor is going to give you in a 30 minute visit.

WebMD and several others are very good medical sites which will help guide your medical choices and options without ever spending a dime on healthcare.

Anecdote: My mother was once diagnosed with Bell's Palsy. After getting home, I checked on the details of her condition online just to get more information. That evening, small blisters appeared in her ear. I did some further searching and read that if you've been diagnosed with Bell's Palsy and small blisters appear in your ear some hours later, you've got Ramsay Hunt syndrome, and you need to get thyself back to the doctor. Without the internet, we never would have known.

When we got back to the doctor, we told them about what "we read on the internet" (doctors must love that shit), the RN went to her computer, got on WebMD and said "Well I'll be go to hell..."

roo|8.4.09 @ 7:08PM|#

the first time i tried using the web to diagnose a problem i thought an ingrown hair was a hernia. i'll stick with a professional physician, thank you very much.

Neu Mejican|8.4.09 @ 7:10PM|#

While it is important to keep in mind that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, there are better and better information sites available.

The trick is knowing what to look for and what is trivial.

As sites become more user friendly, they provide the health care system with an important triage process that can reduce costly but unnecessary emergency room visits, for instance.

Paul|8.4.09 @ 7:11PM|#

i'll stick with a professional physician, thank you very much

Right, that guy who only works three days a week so he can play golf the other two, and does a rail of blow every friday and hasn't been to a refresher course in 15 years.

You're not supposed to diagnose yourself on the internet anyway. You just use it as a guide.

Fred Dawes|8.4.09 @ 7:15PM|#

total BS Set up BS By people who want you under some third world control.

Alexander Pope|8.4.09 @ 7:41PM|#

A little learning is a dangerous thing.

QED ;-)

anarch|8.4.09 @ 7:51PM|#

The only thing wrong with Yahoo answers to medical questions is that they aren't enhanced by son et lumière, a deficiency easily remedied.

Some Guy|8.4.09 @ 9:05PM|#

I don't know whether the amount of health information online helps or hurts when it comes to hypochondriacs.

Hypochondriac|8.4.09 @ 9:08PM|#

Hurts.

Everything hurts.

Sadist|8.4.09 @ 9:18PM|#

How about this?

Hypochondriac|8.4.09 @ 9:21PM|#

That was bold.

dfd|8.4.09 @ 9:31PM|#

and does a rail of blow every friday

If you really wanted to make him sound scary, I'd have gone with a few shots of Jäger at lunch or something. I mean, who cares if he does a rail on Fridays? Hell, if he does it Friday at lunch you're definitely better off with a happy, clear-headed and alert doctor that afternoon rather than a drowsy, forgetful, stumbling, sloppy drunk.

Simply put, I'd much rather go to a doctor (or lawyer, engineer, pilot, etc.) who snorts a few lines than one who does a few shots.

juanita|8.4.09 @ 9:52PM|#

SpongePaul | August 4, 2009, 6:10pm | #
FUCK MYDYSLEXIC SPELLING AND TYPING!!!!!!!!!

Why do you think they call it dope?

|8.4.09 @ 11:15PM|#

Not to be picky, but you mean "e.g." and not "i.e."

e.g. means "for example" whereas "i.e." means "that is to say" or "in other words."

Anomalous|8.5.09 @ 7:48AM|#

Why does it hurt when I pee?

ConHugeCo|8.5.09 @ 9:31AM|#

You've got.... Leprosy

I, Kahn O\'Clast|8.5.09 @ 9:44AM|#

I could have done without the link to the ER horror stories, thanks.