[e-drug] Re: New drug info resource (cont'd)

["Candy Day" <candy@healthlink.org.za>]

E-drug: Re: New drug info resource (cont'd)
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With reference to the current discussion on a drug information resource, I 
think
you may be interested in this fairly probing article in the Washington Post 
entitled
"Behind the Scenes on Health Web sites". Although broader than just drug
information, it raises essentially many of the same issues. A small part 
included
below:

Regards
Candy

To view the entire article, go to
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7407-2000May15.html

Behind the Scenes on Health Web Sites

.......
Welcome to the murky world of Internet health and medicine for consumers,
where it's hard to tell who is providing information, how good it is and 
what
the provider's ulterior motives might be. Although the sites offer what 
could be
some of the most important information for which people turn to the World
Wide Web, the operators of these sites are not necessarily committed
foremost to meeting that public need.
Take, for instance, InteliHealth.com, one of the Internet's most popular 
and
well-regarded health sites, and a just-announced partner, beginning July 
31,
with Harvard Medical School. InteliHealth uses (and has trademarked) the
slogan "The Trusted Source." Unfortunately, it is not a very good source of 
information about who owns it - the financially troubled health insurer 
Aetna
U.S. Healthcare, which is under fire for practicies that allegedly rewarded 
doctors for denying care to patients. Although Aetna's president recently
proclaimed InteliHealth "a critical component of our Internet strategy," 
you
won't find a reference to Aetna on the home page, in the "About Us" area or 
even in the press releases. (If you enter the word "Aetna" in the site's 
search
engine, you'll find a few pages mentioning Aetna and several Aetna 
insurance
products, but none clearly identifies it as the owner of InteliHealth.)
......

Candy Day, candy@healthlink.org.za
HealthLink, http://www.healthlink.org.za a program of
Health Systems Trust http://www.hst.org.za

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