Category Archives: medical

Dr. Dial-up

Click here to read more
There is a new initiative underway to make biomedical research immediately available on line and free to the public. According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 66% of those with internet access have used it to look for health/medical information. That means that over 85 million Americans (and who knows how many people worldwide) went online last year to doctor themselves. Is this a new kind of do-it-yourselfer, the amateur physician, Google-ing a diagnosis and a cure? And when all of this new “information” becomes available, will the office visit–which the HMOs are already putting the squeeze on–become a thing of the past?