Saturday, January 14, 2012

Surfing the Web for the data of breast cancer

There are new weapons in the fight against breast cancer. Know them. Sign up for the WebMD Breast Cancer newsletter and stay informed.They have found these quality criteria – often recommended as a way for consumers to filter out incorrect information – have always been effective. “Just because an author is identified does not mean [...]
There are new weapons in the fight against breast cancer. Know them. Sign up for the WebMD Breast Cancer newsletter and stay informed.They have found these quality criteria – often recommended as a way for consumers to filter out incorrect information – have always been effective. “Just because an author is identified does not mean it’s true, for example,” Bernstam said.
Also share information with your health care provider, said Fleisher. “No two cases are the same,” he said.
For the best online information about breast cancer or other health problems, and other Bernstam Tip: Consider the source. “Use the same common sense applies in the offline world,” says Bernstam. Start with the government or other well-known and respected. In the case of breast cancer, which includes the American Cancer Society and Medline Plus service offered by the National Library of Medicine, said.
Search “smart,” said Zeng-Treitler. “Use more professional medical terms -” congestive heart failure value “versus” heart problems, “he said.” In this way tend to lead to a more professional content. ”
Information on the website is mostly reliable, with only one of 20 sites with incorrect information, according to new research. But the researchers found more complementary sites 15 times more likely to contain false or misleading information.
The study was conducted in collaboration with researchers at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and published online today in the March 15 issue of the journal Cancer.
The results of this study do not surprise another expert. “This is consistent with previous findings,” said Zeng Qing-Treitler, PhD, assistant professor of radiology at Harvard University researcher and information on the health of consumers.
But another expert, Linda Fleisher, MPH, who oversees the evaluation of Web pages for use on a patient at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, was a bit ‘surprised that the quality criteria chosen by the researchers have not always correlated with accuracy. Tips for browsing the Internet
“If I had to guess, I believe that the information inside would be more accurate than other [health],” said Elmer V. Bernstam, MD, study author and associate professor of information science, health and internal medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Bernstam studied the accuracy of health information online for about eight years.
Many quality criteria, the team resumed Bernstam 15 criteria to evaluate the pages. Among them: the authorship identified? T you know when information has been updated or changed? It is identified medical credentials? Affiliation of the authors is indicated? Criteria for evaluating web pages more .
Then, two reviewers evaluated the information. An examiner uses 15 quality criteria used to evaluate traditional web pages, such as viewing the author, the date the page was created, and when the information that has changed.
When the researchers have identified the sites of complementary and alternative medicine, have been found over 15 times more likely to have false or misleading information.
Bernstam refuses to give the names of websites, even those with inaccuracies. “The web is evolving,” he said. “The fact [sites] are true today does not mean that tomorrow they are true.” Verify the accuracy of the Internet
The researchers found 41 false or misleading statements of 18 of the 343 sites – about 5%. “It’s not too bad,” says Bernstam.

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