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Health on the Web: If you're not confused, you should be
New book by consumer health advocate puts Internet research skills into hands of health consumers
Type the word
cancer into your Google search engine and you'll be greeting with more than 27 million results. Yet hundreds of thousands of people do just that every month. According to Gary Paul
Bryant, author of the newly released book, Searching the Web for Health, A Guide to Finding Reliable Medical Information on the Internet,
much of the health information consumers find on the Web is outdated, quoted out of context, and sometimes, just plain wrong.
"The Web is a tremendous tool for uncovering medical
information," says Bryant, "but we sometimes make the search harder than it needs to be."
Bryant, whose medical interest started with his own experience with a congenital birth
defect, has spent the last five years developing Wisdomatics, a company that continues to explore ways of bringing reliable medical information to consumers.
"Consumers have a right to know what's going on in the world of medical research. We have a responsibility to our own well-being, and that means educating ourselves so that we become
partners in our own health decisions," says Bryant. Searching the Web for Health provides some of the tools that we need to make this happen.
The book is an excellent resource for
computer users, from novice to expert. Teachers, librarians and medical professionals may find the book to be a useful tool for students, patrons and patients, to safely navigate the Web in their search
for accurate medical information. In addition, the books' extensive appendix provides listings of hospitals, universities and biotechnology companies that are actively involved in medical research.
Published by iUniverse, Searching the Web for Health, A Guide to Finding Reliable Medical Information on the Internet (ISBN 0-595-30343-9, 90 pages, $11.95) is currently available from its own
Web site at SearchingTheWebForHealth.com, BooksaMillion.com, iUniverse.com, Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble, and other book outlets. Retail distribution is provided by Baker & Taylor and the Ingram Book Group.
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