Patient Stories on Health Web Sites Can Not Always Be TrustedComments on: --

By: e-Patient Dave

e-Patient Dave — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 01:39:42 +0000

Marjorie, that’s a ridiculous price, but I don’t see what it has to do with this discussion. Am I missing something?

By: Marjorie Wilmes

Marjorie Wilmes — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 00:30:23 +0000

Is it legal for St. John’s Mercy Hospital in St. Louis to discriminate against the patient? We had a non-covered item while in the hospital-Belladonna, for which we were charged $150 each for 2 pills.{Walmart at the time sold 60 of them for $4.00.} I also saw a similar price in a vitamin catalog. First of all, I find the price exorbitant! Also, when the insurance covers an item, they only pay 12 or 13percent of the bill and the hospital accepts that. But the patient has to pay the entire amount of the unpaid bill. Is that not discrimination? I would be interested to hear what others have to say.

By: e-Patient Dave

e-Patient Dave — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 18:35:14 +0000

Dude, you might as well stop sending in spammy comments with links to your weight loss site – we don’t play that game here. (I left one but removed your spam link.) We’re here for community, not advertising.

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 17:02:56 +0000

This is a great post thanks for pointing this out! Educating people on how to lose weight is really important and this sort of stuff only makes the job harder!

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 20:21:46 +0000

I was reading where people also put up fake messages and fake cancer websites in hope of gathering donations…. most are just trolls looking for attention.

But some are down right con jobs.

Make sure you do your research before sending any money.

Thanks for the article. great tips.
Paul

By: lose weight

lose weight — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 13:27:11 +0000

Thanks for pointing this out. The weight loss industry can be greedy and deceiving, proper education about this is so important. Regards, Chrysten

By: Montreal Dentist

Montreal Dentist — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 17:07:35 +0000

There’s nothing I hate more than this, maybe the ones that splatter their site with “As seen on…” I mean, who regulates all this stuff?

By: Truth is stranger than fiction – and deceptive websites are all too plentiful | e-Patients.net

Tue, 21 Sep 2010 12:02:05 +0000

[...] By Lisa Neal Gualtieri. (Her earlier much-commented post on this subject is here.) [...]

By: Liz Yenney

Liz Yenney — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 20:51:36 +0000

Took me time to learn all the feedback, however I actually loved the article. It proved to be Very useful to me and I am certain to all of the commenters right here! It’s always nice when you can’t only learn, but also entertained! I’m sure you had fun scripting this article.

By: Truth Is Stranger than Fiction and Deceptive Websites Are All-too-Plentiful « Lisa Neal Gualtieri

Sat, 11 Sep 2010 20:21:58 +0000

[...] of ongoing debate by Gilles Frydman and others about indicators of health website credibility, I searched for other [...]

By: Four Perspectives on Story in Healthcare : Career Portfolio

Four Perspectives on Story in Healthcare : Career Portfolio — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 07:48:12 +0000

[...] stories are widely available on the Internet but are not always trustworthy: In a guest post on e-patients.net, Lisa Gualtieri, PhD, notes three kinds of patient stories that can be found on the [...]

By: Jason

Jason — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 20:36:19 +0000

If the major search engines worked something out to give vertifications a boost in authority, patients searching for information would be safe turning to search engines as a first response.

Sites that have been verified should get some sort of search engine ranking boost because it makes sense that sites need a way to increase credibility if credible.

Plus inaccurate medical data is a major problem, any doctor will tell you that. Improving the accuracy of the data will improve this problem as well.

By: Lisa Neal Gualtieri

Lisa Neal Gualtieri — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 19:17:04 +0000

Does @LIVESTRONG reconceptualization of cancer influence contributed survivor stories? @jourpm http://is.gd/aIB1h #COMET2010

By: Zoe

Zoe — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 08:42:29 +0000

This is an eye-awakening post. In the cyber technology today, anything is possible. And people can just put up stories and make other people believe that it’s true. We should be more skeptical and ask for more medical advices, not just rely on false testimonies.

By: Why a Private Person Goes Public: Jesica Harringon’s Battle with Breast Cancer While Pregnant « Lisa Neal Gualtieri

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 13:10:04 +0000

[...] boy, completed her cancer treatment, and is in remission. I contacted her because of my interest in patient stories, curious about how her story was featured by J&J and why she decided to tell her story in a [...]

By: SBBH

SBBH — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 20:31:41 +0000

This is quite a scary issue. Despite being a web addict, I have learned to take a lot of what I read with a pinch of salt. Particularly when it comes to researching health issues. My experience has been that generally people prefer to share negative slants, which often leads you to worry more about “worst case scenarios”. Your post raises something I hadn’t considered (perhaps naively) — that positive testamonials may not be authentic. Of course, my other rule of thumb — to only reference reputable sites (backed up by associations/journalist recommendations) — is quite a good protective buffer.

By: e-Patient Dave

e-Patient Dave — Tue, 25 May 2010 22:44:26 +0000

Oops, my time zones slipped a cog: I’m in Amsterdam so I didn’t realize I was six hours late. Anyway, point still stands – except in this case the community beat the cops by a mile.

By: e-Patient Dave

e-Patient Dave — Tue, 25 May 2010 22:42:36 +0000

Brad,

Fascinating example of a good community!

2 minutes after he posted his comment, I got notified of it, and clicked the “Spam it” link in my admin email.

And before I even got online to do that, the community (you) stomped on him anyway, and your “thanks, spammer” email arrived in my box. :–)

By: Brad Einarsen

Brad Einarsen — Tue, 25 May 2010 16:45:20 +0000

The post from “Micheal Stmary” is exactly what this article is all about.

Thanks for the example, spammer.

By: Terrilyn Pippens

Terrilyn Pippens — Thu, 20 May 2010 02:22:10 +0000

I validate health stories by cross checking them with other similar stories and references to reputable authors.