Health Care Online - Health Information - Is This Reliable?

Health Care Online : Is this information for real Many people search the internet to find information about medical problems, various health issues or to find a health care provider. However, not all the information on the world wide web is credible. How is the patient supposed to know if what they are reading is reliable? Here are some questions to consider in evaluating health information from the internet. First, ask yourself who is responsible for this content? Is it a special interest group, non-profit, for profit, professional association, government agency? Is there an attempt to sell you a cure? When reading an article are you able to tell who the author is? Can you discern the qualifications or credentials? Does the author have any professional affiliations with major health or medical institutions? Has the information been reviewed by other medical professionals? Or an advisory board? Does the article provide sources for it's information? For example if the article reads "95% survival rate related to . . . " where did this number come from? And what exactly does survival mean? Just a side note (Many times people assume that a survival rate is the same as the opposite of death. The clarifying point is that survival rate takes into account a particular amount of time (e.g. 5 year survival, 3 year survival, 1 year survival rate etc.). Without qualifying what is meant by the terms used people can be led to believe many false claims. Is there a way to contact the sponsor of the information for clarification of the material provided? How is the site offering the information financially supported? Is the health information current? Keep in mind health information seems to change very quickly. Ask yourself how recent is the information? If you are asked to register for more information is it made clear how your personal information can and will be used? Does the site ask you to send money or for credit card or social security numbers? This should be a red flag that you should look at a different web site. Of course anytime you find information online you should speak to a trusted source of health information like your primary care provider? Also, see if you can corroborate the information across multiple sites. These tips should help you evaluate health information on the internet and empower you to make better health choices. Raymond Zakhari, MS, NP http://MetroMedicalDirect.com A trusted source for all your primary care needs -- Metro Medical Direct: Free Initial Consultation. Metro Medical Direct takes the hassles out of going to the doctor, by bringing the exam room to your door. Ideal for the busy and discerning professional who does not have the time to wait around in waiting room only to rushed through their appointment. A health care professional that you can talk to like a trusted friend. Offering no judgments, and competent compassionate and discrete care you can trust in your home, office or hotel. Offices also available through out Manhattan. You will be treated with respect and your dignity will remain intact.Secure patient portal that allows you to request your appointment online, send secure messages, request refills and referrals. This ensures that you do not have to speak to a secretary about your personal problems.Metro Medical Direct offers web-based, holistic primary care and medical house calls. When you don't feel well, Metro Medical Direct offers same day and next day appointments. Our Virtual Office Web Cam appointments allow you to take your PCP with you wherever you go, even when traveling for business or vacation.

HIPAA Law Protects Against Improper Disclosure of Health Information by Health Care Providers

In June 2009, a 22-year-old Honolulu mother of three young children was sentenced to a year in prison for illegally accessing another woman's medical records and posting on a MySpace page that she had HIV. The State of Hawaii brought charges against the woman under a state statute criminalizing the unauthorized access to a computer; and which categorized the conduct of the defendant as a class B felony. According to accounts of the incidents that led to the woman's conviction, there was a feud between the victim and the victim's sister-in-law, a friend of the defendant. The defendant, who worked as a patient service representative at the hospital where the victim was a patient, accessed the computer for the victim's sister-in-law. Over the course of approximately ten months, the defendant accessed the patient's medical records three times through a computer. After she learned of the victim's medical condition, the defendant posted on her MySpace page that the victim had HIV. In a second posting, she said the victim was dying of AIDS. The victim complained to hospital officials of the unauthorized access. After an internal investigation the hospital terminated the defendant's employment. The defendant's conduct, of course, was egregious and inexcusable. The one-year jail term handed down by the Court exceeded the term recommended by the prosecutor. Nevertheless, beyond the issue of holding the defendant accountable for her actions some may question to what extent the hospital should bear responsibility for the breaches of confidentiality that occurred. Federal law imposes statutory burdens on health care providers to protect against the improper use or disclosure of private health information and to reasonably limit uses and disclosures to the minimum necessary to accomplish their intended purpose. Specifically, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996's ("HIPAA") privacy regulations became effective on April 14, 2003. HIPAA is intended to protect consumers' health information, allow consumers greater access and control to such information, enhance health care, and finally to create a national framework for health privacy protection. HIPAA covers health plans, health care clearinghouses, and those health care providers that conduct certain financial and administrative transactions electronically. In addition to the privacy regulations, HIPAA's security rules became effective on April 21, 2005. Together the privacy and security regulations are the only national set of regulations that governs the use and disclosure of private, confidential and sensitive information. Under HIPAA's Security Rule, the standards for the protection of electronic information covered by HIPAA are divided into three groups: Administrative safeguards, Physical safeguards and Technical safeguards. A couple of the most significant required safeguards under HIPAA are the Administrative "Sanction Policy" and "Security Awareness Training" safeguards. The sanction policy standard requires a communication to all employees regarding the disciplinary action that will be taken by the covered entity for violations of HIPAA. The sanction policy should have a notice of civil or criminal penalties for misuses or misappropriation of health information and make employees aware that violations may result in notification to law enforcement officials and regulatory, accreditation, and licensure organizations. The security awareness training standard requires all employees, agents, and contractors to participate in information security awareness training programs. Based on job responsibilities, the covered entity should require individuals to attend customized education programs that focus on issues regarding use of health information and responsibilities regarding confidentiality and security. The HIPAA privacy and security regulations require a privacy officer and security officer to be designated by the covered entity. The privacy and security officer should continually analyze and manage risk by thoroughly assessing potential risks and vulnerabilities, and implementing related security measures. The U.S. Department of Justice ("DOJ") clarified the penalties that may be assessed and against whom for HIPAA violations. Covered entities and individuals whom "knowingly" obtain or disclose individually identifiable health information in violation of HIPAA may be fined up to $50,000, as well as imprisonment up to one year. Offenses committed under false pretenses allow penalties to be increased--a $100,000 fine, with up to five years in prison. Finally, offenses committed with the intent to sell, transfer, or use individually identifiable health information for commercial advantage, personal gain or malicious harm permit fines of $250,000, and imprisonment for up to ten years. Given the security breach that led to the tragic events, including the one-year jail term for the defendant, Hawaii employers, health care providers and health plans should review their privacy and HIPAA policies and conduct an audit of their practices in order to protect against the improper use and disclosure of private health information and to reduce the risk of privacy breaches in their own organization. Roman Amaguin, Esq. is a Hawaii lawyer specializing in employment law, labor law, and civil litigation. His philosophy is to provide practical solutions to both complex and common workplace, employer/employee, and civil disputes. As a Hawaii attorney, Mr. Amaguin regularly appears before all federal and state courts in Hawaii, as well as state and federal administrative agencies such as the U.S. EEOC and Hawaii Civil Rights Commission.

How Do You Get Your Family Health Information?

Who do you turn to for family health matters? If your child wakes up in the middle of the night and isn't feeling well what do you do? If your ache or pain hasn't gone after a couple of days, do you make an appointment to see the doctor, or do you just hope it will go away by itself? Do you know the difference between your baby or small child crying for attention and crying due to illness? If you don't know where you can get relevant and accurate health information, how do you know you're not suffering unnecessarily, or ignoring serious symptoms? Has someone you know been diagnosed with an illness or condition that you don't know anything about? Perhaps it's not the sort of thing that you want others to know about, so asking around might not be possible. Where can you get the accurate and easy to understand information you need quickly? If you do know where to look for your family health information, how accurate and true is it? Are you using an old book handed down through your family for generations? Do you ask somebody with tenuous medical knowledge or experience? What about online? The internet means that information can be obtained in seconds, but it's not always accurate or relevant, especially where health is concerned. There are always scare stories sites, or sites containing the opinions of people with no medical training. Even putting your symptoms into a more trustworthy site can lead you to believe that you could have a life threatening illness. If you do use a trusted source for your medical and health information, how often is it updated? If it is not updated regularly, or you are relying on a book from several years ago, then prevention and treatments could have changed dramatically. You wouldn't expect a 20 year old map to still be accurate, so why would you rely on a 20 year old medical book? Do you know what the latest treatments are for common family conditions? Have things changed over the last few years? If you're not sure, you'll need some way of finding out, so that you can be sure that you are providing accurate health information for your family when they need it most. There may have been significant advances in drugs, surgical procedures and other technology recently that will affect you. Are there any new treatments available for any existing conditions you or your family may have. What about asthma, hay fever, or allergies? You might want to keep on top of any new treatments for conditions that you or your family may have. Nutrition and exercise advice is important for those looking to lead an active and healthy life. Perhaps you're not sure where to get advice from if you want to take up a new sport or pastime, or start an exercise regime. In order to make things easier for you and your family, you'll want to try and find a single central source of medical and health information. You'll need to make sure that it is accurate and regularly updated, and that the information provided is easy to understand and relevant. This source of family health information might not go far enough for you, but it will certainly provide you with the basics. Whatever type of family health advice you're looking for, you'll need to make sure that it is accurate, and genuine. If you need Family Health information or advice, you'll want to make sure that it is accurate and trustworthy. Let Candis Magazine provide you and your family with all your Family Health information.

Health Information at Your Fingertips

We all are familiar with the saying, "an apple a day, keeps the doctor away." But no matter how many apples you eat, bottom line is you cannot run away from ailments. If you are born healthy without any defect of design then God almighty has been incredibly kind to you. Else if you are born with a problem or flaw then life gets quite challenging henceforth. This is when health information works as gospel to us. It's not that if you have all the health information in your bag then you become a superman, but it's important because it can keep you away from health problems or will guide you to the best possible cure, as much as possible. Having the latest health information not only enlightens us towards the latest cure, but also teaches us the 123's of proper health care and health information that can prevent us from illnesses. No matter what is the case, everyone should go for a thorough physical check up at least once a year, just to know how your body feels, it's exactly like our car servicing that we never forget to oblige. And as we all know human body is the most sophisticated machine we can ever think of, so undoubtedly it requires more care than a man made machine, by having proper health information. Because if the car fails to work, it could be replaced but the human body cannot be. Doctors, websites, government health agencies sometimes have free health information and check up just to make sure we are aware of the changing health scenario. Many big non-profits like Family Care International, Global Health Council, UNICEF, and Action Against Hunger have health care programs, which serve different sections of the society. You do not have to be a doctor to spread health information amongst people. If every single person in this society vows to catch up with the latest health information and spread it, then we can save millions of people across the world. Health information is the key to the growth of the society. Proper health and hygiene comes first in the development of a any class, community or nation. So many organizations and people across the world have dedicated themselves to the cause of health care and cure. So remember, it we take this one big step, it could lead to several other big steps and serve a whole class or community.

5 Simple Search Strategies to Find Quality Health Information on the Internet

Approximately 10 million people in the USA search online for information about their health, or the health of their loved ones, every single day. 140 million Americans have already undertaken such searches. A number of recent studies have reviewed this activity and three factors stand out: 1. Searching on the Internet for health information is a remarkably common activity in America 2. While many people find health information that seems helpful, most do not really know if it is reliable. 3. People trust doctors to deliver high quality health information, and information from the internet discussed with doctors, who are the "health information experts" often leads to changes in treatment. So what are the 5 search strategies? 1. Quick and dirty. For a quick simple search there is nothing wrong with doing rapid searches at Google or Yahoo , and at least scan the first 20 or so results. Just remember that Google displays two types of results, sites ranked by a commercially secret algorithmically derived measure of popularity, which is what most people look at first, and sponsored paid links. The second quick and dirty approach to undertake routinely is to go to a couple of quality information sites as your first stop beyond the search engines. I recommend wikipedia the amazing open source encyclopedia with great breadth and depth, but still with a level of inaccuracy, and MedlinePlus which is a Government run site and is, in my opinion, the best overall consumer health site on the Internet. Many patients want to go beyond this level of search however, and I would suggest the following strategies; 2 Professional journal searching There are several free programs on the Internet which allow you to search professional peer-reviewed scientific papers from the health and medical journals. The two main professional databases are: "Medline" at the NIH and "Psycinfo" at the American Psychological Association 3 Search evaluated Internet subject gateways The beauty of Internet searches is that you can pick up useful reliable information which hasn't always been published in peer-reviewed journals, but which has been checked for accuracy by teams of medical reviewers. The gateways I use are the US National Library of Medicine or Healthfinder in the US, and Intute or NHSDirect in the UK. Other sites are devoted to collecting peer-reviewed "best practice" treatment guidelines (guideline.gov ) which you can use to compare with your own treatment regime. If you want information on evidence-based medicine you cannot go past the Cochrane Library ( cochrane.org ) and I frequently recommend eMedicine (eMedicine.com) which is emerging as the "wikipedia of healthcare". 4 General Web searches Now we move to the open areas of the Internet that you will find via search engines. Here you will have to start questioning the quality of the information you retrieve much more critically as most of it will not have been subjected to any real quality review mechanism, and much will have a commercial bias. Use the methods at Discern.org.uk to evaluate the quality of information on general sites, and in principle tend to focus on mainstream sites run by government agencies or universities. 5 Discussion lists and newsgroups This is where you can waste most time, and where information is least reliable - but it can be fun, and is sometimes helpful, particularly if you want to communicate with others who have similar needs. You may even be lucky and join a group where there is a real expert. There are many groups on the Internet - just put in a search string with the word group, as well as whatever topic you are researching. The largest number of health related ones seem to currently be at Google groups Once you have undertaken your searches the most important next step is to discuss your findings with you doctor. The role of many doctors in gradually changing, and they are increasingly becoming "information analysts" helping patients find good quality health information that will lead to good healthcare decisions. More details are available in my book.

Biomedical Internet Blog - Searching For Health Information on the Internet

In a recent study, it was discovered that 80% of individuals who search for health information make use of general search engines like Google and Yahoo. Are they going to get optimum results? The obvious answer is no. In the same survey, it was also observed that 64% of the most searched health information is about diseases or medical problems. 51% of Internet users seeking health information search for medical treatment or procedure. 9% search for information on how to quit smoking while 8% search for information on drugs and alcohol. This article reveals the right Internet tool to use when searching for health information on the Internet and what kind of resources is available in the discovered tool. It is obvious that the general search engine cannot give optimum information on health related resources on the Internet. The solution to this problem is to look for a government database on health, which is reliable and historic. Medline Plus is where to go when searching for health information of any kind on the Internet. This site is a service of the United State's national library of medicine and the national institutes of health. The database showcases 750 health topics on conditions, diseases and wellness. Prescription tips and over-the-counter medicines, herbs and supplements are also made available. Medical Doctors and Allied health professionals will find the medical encyclopedia in the site, which include pictures and diagrams very useful. Whenever you want to refresh or remember certain medical terms, the dictionary page, which dwells on spellings and definitions of medical words come very handy. What about current news about health and press announcements? They are abundant in the site and you can subscribe to it through RSS feed. If you are bothered about health information in your locality, the page to go is the Go Local section, which provides service for finding local resources for health, related issues. There is a direct link to PUBMED and NIH (National Institute Of Health) at the bottom of the home page. What's more? Over 165 interactive tutorials with slide shows are conspicuously displayed at the upper right side of the home page. If you are interested on studies for new drugs, you will find the information at the clinical trials link. There are also videos of surgical procedures. Talk about more than enough focused health information on the Internet. You can never miss out when you go to Medlineplus.

Health Information Management Programs

Find Health Information Management Programs in the United States and Canada. Today, health information management programs are essential to candidates aspiring for job opportunities in physicians' offices, home healthcare businesses, outpatient clinics, hospitals, nursing homes and other medical facilities. While no two health information management programs are alike, it is essential to review course offerings at schools and career-training institutes that offer this and related programs. Though the majority of health information management programs are offered as degreed courses, a number of educational facilities may extend medical office specialist training, which can be completed as a job-specific course that results in a diploma or certificate. Health information management programs are often accredited, and require successful completion of certification from the American Health Information Management Association. Common studies in health information management programs include liberal arts, and comprehensive health services administration training. Graduates of health information management programs will have gained the knowledge and skills to successfully plan, direct, coordinate and supervise overall healthcare administration duties. Because healthcare managers (or medical and health service managers) must maintain client/patient records, it is critical that these healthcare workers continue education in computer technology and medical software to keep up with business demands. Though States vary in regulations, students who desire to work in nursing care facilities as health care administrators must complete one of several health information management programs and have obtained a minimum of a Bachelor's degree. In addition, a licensing examination is also required. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, growth in this field is expected to be positive; and individuals who have successfully completed all studies in any one of a number of health information management programs have the potential to achieve annual earnings of over $117k. Find your dream job! Let education within fast-growing industries like massage therapy, cosmetology, information technology, healthcare, business, and others get you started! Explore career school programs near you. Health Information Management Programs ©Copyright 2007 The CollegeBound Network All Rights Reserved NOTICE: Article(s) may be republished free of charge to relevant websites, as long as Copyright and Author Resource Box are included; and ALL Hyperlinks REMAIN intact and active.