Patients Networking

A lot of social networks out there available for us enhance communication, and allow us to voice out and meet people that we may be too shy to do so otherwise. Patients that have suffered through a certain disease or someone who may have summered trauma due to medical reasons may require the emotional support to encourage them to be socially active once again. Sites have been established to allow for people who have gone through the same or a similar problem to communicate, and support each other. It is interesting to see how such social networks can actually serve as an aid to build on a patient's emotional and mental state.

The downside is that a lot of opinionated blogs are exchanged, and perhaps unprofessional medical advice may be given. Therefore these sites face similar problems that other social networks face; such that a lot of the information posted on these sites cannot be monitored and validated for accuracy.


http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/24/social-networking-for-patients/?scp=6&sq=social%20networking&st=cse

I think it is really great that people with similiar diseases and afflictions are able to communicate with each other and give advice to each other. It's better for people to be blogging/posting stuff on sites like these than in a yahoo.com forum or something, it gives a sense of comfort because it seems more professional . But I also think, as the article states, that this could lead to many problems, both with people giving inaccurate information and with people who are misdiagnosing themselves (welcome to my life as a hypochondriac). Maybe with universal health care people will stop using sites like these for medical information purposes (still use it for mental and emotional support) and instead just go see a real doctor about it. Problem with that is, a likelihood of long lines and decreased attention time. Nice tradeoff.