social media, good and bad.

I found an article that talks about social media and how it can be beneficial and detrimental to patients with certain disease states. We all know that the web is full of information, however, not all information is good. The basis of this article is that the American College of Gastroenterology conducted 2 studies regarding the quality of information for patients of gastrointestinal problems. The first one was a Facebook study. Here, esophageal cancer survivor patients and caregivers could join to get information regarding similar patients and them sharing their experiences and different treatments that they have undergone. It was a support network and beneficial. The second study was to assess the quality of information of YouTube regarding information of inflammatory bowel disease. The results were “while YouTube can be a powerful tool for patient education and support, overall Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) content posted on YouTube was poor."
I guess the moral of the story is always talk to your doctor and know where to look for credible information.

http://www.healthcare-informatics.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=news&mod=News&mid=9A02E3B96F2A415ABC72CB5F516B4C10&tier=3&nid=6AB55993D2CC4281AB5A37FDCD60A6B5