Washington Post Health Section
Interactions – Letter to the Editor (p. F-2)

WASHINGTON, DC - July 2, 2002
The concept of providing packaged information to physicians for patient referral, while a worthwhile effort, is too limiting, particularly for the baby boomers, caregivers and of course the 43 million people who don't have access to a physician.

All too often the need for information is the result of a crisis, and people want quality information immediately. What to do? We propose educating people on how to evaluate health information on the Web themselves.

We have developed a basic guide with a reminder checklist (www.spry.org). In our experience people will then begin to recognize the quality sites, such as NIH's MedlinePlus. Why wait to go through the physician, who is already overburdened?

Russell Morgan, Dr. P.H.
President, SPRY Foundation
Washington

Click for the "Guide to Evaluating Health Information".