The idea of a medical dictionary may seem somewhat out of date or even old-fashioned in today's world, but there was a time not that long ago when people would instantly rush to any type of medical dictionary when they felt there was something wrong with them.
People would scour through the pages of these books looking for symptoms, causes, remedies and all types of information on what they believed was wrong with them.
These types of dictionaries, although not widely accessible were common enough for many people to be able to get hold of them and use them as a precursor of self-help medical websites.
Unquestionably medical dictionaries do have a value, whether they appear in printed form or on-line, but as with many things it is how they are used and by whom that is the most important thing.
The advent of the internet brought with it a burgeoning supply of health-related websites, many of them quite accurate and quite helpful, and a number of them very inaccurate and decidedly unhelpful.
Being able to differentiate between what is a helpful and unhelpful health website is a very difficult process at times but one that has become increasingly important to do.
When these health websites started appearing, there were numerous anecdotal instances related of patients turning up at their doctors surgeries armed with printouts of web pages that would tell the doctor exactly what was wrong with their patient and what needed to be done about it.
Many medical professionals became quite defensive about the use of health websites on-line, a trend that thankfully has now pretty much disappeared.
There seems to be a growing awareness by people of how to use these on-line medical dictionaries with some degree of caution and discretion.
The need to take responsibility for one's health becomes more and more relevant in today's world, given the high cost of health insurance and related problems that result from limited benefits and tightly controlled in and out networks of health care providers.
Individuals have to take responsibility for their health and are increasingly reliant on information provided on-line by health-related websites.
The obvious danger of a health-related website is in part whether or not information that it provides is accurate or not, and in part about how that information is used.
Perhaps the best source of websites that are relevant to a health issue tend to come from the effective self-help groups and group forums that relate to a particular health condition or illness.
Anyone who lives with a particular type of illness or disease tends to have a better understanding of it in a felt sense and many other people, and as such can often give best guidance as to where people can do to learn about it.
People would scour through the pages of these books looking for symptoms, causes, remedies and all types of information on what they believed was wrong with them.
These types of dictionaries, although not widely accessible were common enough for many people to be able to get hold of them and use them as a precursor of self-help medical websites.
Unquestionably medical dictionaries do have a value, whether they appear in printed form or on-line, but as with many things it is how they are used and by whom that is the most important thing.
The advent of the internet brought with it a burgeoning supply of health-related websites, many of them quite accurate and quite helpful, and a number of them very inaccurate and decidedly unhelpful.
Being able to differentiate between what is a helpful and unhelpful health website is a very difficult process at times but one that has become increasingly important to do.
When these health websites started appearing, there were numerous anecdotal instances related of patients turning up at their doctors surgeries armed with printouts of web pages that would tell the doctor exactly what was wrong with their patient and what needed to be done about it.
Many medical professionals became quite defensive about the use of health websites on-line, a trend that thankfully has now pretty much disappeared.
There seems to be a growing awareness by people of how to use these on-line medical dictionaries with some degree of caution and discretion.
The need to take responsibility for one's health becomes more and more relevant in today's world, given the high cost of health insurance and related problems that result from limited benefits and tightly controlled in and out networks of health care providers.
Individuals have to take responsibility for their health and are increasingly reliant on information provided on-line by health-related websites.
The obvious danger of a health-related website is in part whether or not information that it provides is accurate or not, and in part about how that information is used.
Perhaps the best source of websites that are relevant to a health issue tend to come from the effective self-help groups and group forums that relate to a particular health condition or illness.
Anyone who lives with a particular type of illness or disease tends to have a better understanding of it in a felt sense and many other people, and as such can often give best guidance as to where people can do to learn about it.