Going to the Doctor’s Office Without Even Leaving Your Home
By: Andrew P. Woodberry

            Remember when you used to go to the grocery store to buy food for your family? Now you go to WebVan and select groceries online that are…(surprise, surprise) delivered to your home by a van. How about those fun auctions, with the fast paced bidding, not to mention the fast paced bid calling by the auctioneer? Gone. Now you cross your fingers during the closing minutes of an online auction as you bid at sites such as Ebay and Amazon.com. But the long lines at the doctor’s office, that’s something that will never disappear, right? Wrong.

Last year alone, 25 million people went online to get health and medical information, and that number is expected to rise to 33 million people by the end of the year 2000.

What has caused this mass exodus to the Internet for information that was once solely attainable through consultation with a doctor? Well, like most industries that have thrived online, it appears as if the online medical industry is fueled by the virtual cornucopia of information out there on the Web.

Each day, as the number of people searching for health information increases, the number of providers of the desired information grows exponentially as well. Even well-respected medical journals have turned to the Internet to disseminate health information at the click of a button.

The Journal of the American Medical Association provides information on vital medical breakthroughs at a click of the button. Thus, giving doctors and lay people alike access to information that was once almost exclusively available to professionals in the medical field.

          Besides the proliferation of online medical journals like the Journal of the American Medical Association and the New England Journal of Medicine there is also a new source of health information on the web appropriately deemed the consumer health site. With so many people searching for information pertaining to their health, it is only natural that there also be consumer health sites with personalized information. While established sites like Johns Hopkins’ Intelihealth site and the Mayo Clinic’s Health Oasis remain the leaders in the health industry, it is the new kids on the block like Dr. Koop’s Community and PersonalMD.com that are getting all the buzz.

          Dr. Koop’s Community, started by the former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, has made headlines around the country with its recent decision to go public and trade on the Nasdaq stock market. After a meteoric stock price rise when first announced, the price of Dr. Koop’s stock has finally returned to more Earthly levels. But, the meteoric rise begs the question, why are Internet health stocks so popular?

The answer: they provide the information that the average health consumer is looking for. Dr. Koop and PersonalMD.com both have broken their sites into sections pertaining to Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Children’s Health, and Senior’s Health. The latter site even allowing you to customize which information you receive on their homepage. PersonalMD.com also has centers that pertain to certain diseases as well as daily updated health news and information.

PersonalMD.com also goes the extra mile, offering scheduled chats pertaining to specific topics, message boards, a drug database, health encyclopedia, and even a medical dictionary. A simple search of the word “Breast Cancer” on the site turns up 208 pages pertaining to that topic! With that much information, it is easy to see why sites like PersonalMD.com are receiving so many visitors.

        However, it is something else that PersonalMD.com is doing that has gained them mention in media outlets like Newsweek and the Boston Globe. PersonalMD.com is the first site of its kind to allow users to store their medical information into a secure database free of charge. Their service, the PersonalMD Emergency Card, is being called the next step in health related Internet technology. After entering your medical information into the secure server, PersonalMD.com sends you your ER card in the mail.

Then, if by chance you end up in the emergency room, the physician that treats you can use that ER card to gain your family medical history, allergies, drug sensitivities, and more instantaneously via the World Wide Web or fax. In fact, they can even have access to your EKGs and X-rays should you choose to fax them in to your PersonalMD.com account. Your personal health information is completely secure and confidential, and best of all, the service is free.

Conclusion

        With online medical records and health information on any topic you can think of, it is no wonder that people are saying the future of healthcare is on the web. With more and more people joining the “information superhighway,” it was only a matter of time before you could find a myriad of information on your most precious asset, your health. If technology continues on its present course, someday you may be waiting to download the results of your health exam, rather than waiting in the seemingly unending line at the doctor’s office.

"Andrew P. Woodberry is Dartmouth College sophomore and aspiring freelancer. If you have any questions, comments, or the address of a good Chinese restaurant in New Hampshire, write to him at Andrew.P.Woodberry@Dartmouth.edu".