If you have ever had a health question and found yourself overwhelmed by the World Wide Web, there may be a solution for you.
The Quillen College of Medicine has implemented a new program that will allow anyone to receive factual health information simply by sending an e-mail or picking up the phone.
“We actually provide health information as a service ourselves so if people don’t have a computer to look for information, they can’t find information or they want information on any kind of health subject, they can ask me the question and I will find the information for them,” said Mary Ward, a consumer health educator at the medical school.
Ward said that she has been using web sites that are considered high quality, reliable and current to answer questions that have been sent.
“We have medical journals and most consumers can’t understand the words in those,” she said. “We want the information to be in everyday language.”
Ward said consumers are looking for health information on the Internet even more than sports or stock information.
“One study found that many people were using the information they found on the Internet to base their medical decisions on,” she said.
Ward said she can get the information back as quickly as one to two days depending on how she received the question.
A question submitted by phone or a response that has to be sent by mail may take longer to receive.
“I can send the information through the mail but if I get an e-mail, I’ll e-mail the information right back to that person,” she said.
The program is funded through a contract with the National Library of Medicine and is one of only four contracts that were awarded nationally.
Part of the contract allows Ward to teach classes so people can learn how to find information and how to recognize quality web sites.
“I teach classes to any group in the community who would like to have me on their program,” she said. “I’ve also taught area librarians how to help consumers find this information, and I’m going to be teaching health-care providers.”
Ward said there are so many web sites and not many people know how to distinguish between quality information and bad information.
“It’s scary because a 12-year-old can put a medical web site out there and give you information,” she said. “People really need to know where the information is coming from.”
Call Ward at 439-8828 or 439-6253 or go online to http://qcom.etsu.edu/medlib/consumer to submit questions.

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