The cyber doctor will see you now
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 ...eighth grade level.

The all-purpose search engines, such as Google and Yahoo!, and the simple terms most patients use to search for information do not lead them to high-quality health Web sites. Only 35 percent of sites identified by these engines were based on proven, scientific claims and did not endorse a product, according to research published in August of 2003 by Michael Slater and Donald Zimmerman of Colorado State University’s Department of Journalism and Technical Communication. A significant number of promotional sites, 20 percent, touted unproven treatments, and some of these included “pseudoscientific claims” that may mislead even readers with college-level scientific education. An additional investigation found that less than one-quarter of the first pages of links displayed by search engines led to relevant sites.

Patients find it difficult to wade through these search results and locate the useful sites. “People have to make on the fly decisions about what’s on the screen in front of them,” Slater said. Whether or not the site advertises a product and who sponsors the site are crucial indicators of the objectivity and reliability of the site. However, patients often cannot get this information from the search listings, Slater and Zimmerman’s study found.

Given the abundance of health information on the Web, its variable quality and the inadequacy of popular search engines as navigators of this information, patients frequently have trouble finding reliable material. “There’s a bit of a free-for-all on the Internet right now,” said Dr. Scherger. “It’s as if all print material looked alike, such as The National Enquirer and The New England Journal of Medicine.”

The sheer mass and amorphous quality of the Internet make regulation very difficult, according to Dr. Slater. Many physicians say regulations will never selectively prevent health content from being posted on the Web, as that could impinge on the source’s right to freedom of speech. For now, agencies only regulate overtly dangerous health information that runs counter to laws protecting consumers, regulating drugs and preventing fraud, “letting the buyer beware,” as Dr. Kuppersmith explained, in all other cases. Dr. Thomas Bodenheimer, a professor of family and community medicine at the University of California at San Francisco, said the Internet has much to offer...