ElderWeb

A great health site is available from U.S. National Library of Medicine, the National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Health & Human Services. called MedlinePlus. Both health professionals and consumers can use it for accurate, current, medical information,. This service provides access to extensive information about specific diseases and conditions and also has links to consumer health information from the National Institutes of Health, dictionaries, lists of hospitals and physicians, health information in Spanish and other languages, and clinical trials.

By Dr. David Lansdale, PhD

This week, Dr. David Lansdale interviews Dr. Mary Jo Deering, of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. Deering is the Director of Health Communication and eHealth in the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She oversees http://www.healthfinder.gov, the official Federal consumer health gateway and coordinates a variety of initiatives dedicated to improving the quality of health information on the Internet.

Q: Let's begin with a brief history of healthfinder.

A. healthfinder was created in direct response to the Vice President's call to improve consumer access to health information. The Vice President and the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) launched the site in 1997. Since then, the site has added special sections for Spanish-speakers, men and seniors to its "Just for You" section. And on December 20th, the Surgeon General launched a new "healthfinder(R) Kids" section.

Q. What is the mission of healthfinder?

A. healthfinderseeks to provide easy public access to resources from Federal, State, and local agencies; voluntary and professional organizations; and other reliable non-commercial sources. In the current context of heightened concern about privacy and quality on commercial health web sites, healthfinder is widely acknowledged as a leading source of trustworthy information and guardian of users' privacy. We do not try to be the definitive source of information on any one topic, nor do we offer the most technical medical and scientific information. But we do provide an easy-to-use, comprehensive array of carefully reviewed resources (over 4,500) on over 1,000 topics, from 1,850 selected organizations around the country.

Q. How does healthfinder fit into the strategy of DHHS for addressing the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead as a result of significant gains in longevity, both in the United States and abroad?

A. healthfinder is the official Federal gateway to consumer health information. Its special section on seniors is designed to facilitate information access for older people, including resources on health promotion and disease prevention. It has extensive resources for caregivers and on choosing health care providers and facilities. It has dozens of helpful resources on difficult end of life issues. healthfinder does not limit its content to a single agency or condition, but tries to serve the broad information needs of seniors and their families. healthfinder has been specifically tested with seniors to ensure the appropriateness of our presentation and design as well as of the technology used. In addition, healthfinder is the featured information resource for supporting Healthy People 2010, the national prevention initiative that includes a national goal of increasing the quality and years of healthy life (see wee.health.gov/healthypeople). The White House and FirstGov.Gov (the Federal-wide search engine) link to healthfinder as their principal consumer health portal.

Q. What role do you see the Internet playing in the aging space in the coming years?

A. Seniors are already one of the fastest growing groups on the Internet. It seems a perfect fit for their desire for information and connection. As technologies improve, with easier use, even more older people will find this an attractive communication mechanism. Also, the Internet is going to play an ever increasing role in the delivery of health care. It is already beginning to change our concepts of how health care providers could and should interact with their patients. It can bring about behind-the-scenes improvements that raise the quality of care and reduce errors. As seniors face problems of health care continuity because they move about or because they require multiple providers, they should look to digital personal health records which they themselves control and which they share with their diverse providers. Senior should actively encourage their health plans and providers to make optimum use of the Internet for both clinical care and services like scheduling appointments or communicating by email.

Q. How might ElderWeb help healthfinder achieve its mission?

A. ElderWeb is a very helpful compendium of news and resources. It will help healthfinder.gov--and the seniors we hope to serve--by informing its readers about the site and its resources. But ElderWeb and its readers can play a more direct role as well: we value your critical scrutiny and suggestions for improvement. Your know what is important, what is helpful, and what is NOT! If there are issues or specific resources we have overlooked, or if you think we should reconsider something we already include, or if we can improve our presentation, please tells us: email healthfinder@health.org. Also, we are currently working on a new and improved healthfinder, and we invite your readers to test it out! Please visit www.healthfinder.gov/betatest. Look at it, try it, and tell us what you think. You will see, on the top right hand corner of each page, a link that says "Please Comment on This Page." Click there, and give us an earful about each and any page that you visit.

Dr. David Lansdale, founder of the Linking Ages program which connects older adults to the Internet, will be conducting a series of interviews for the ElderWeb newsletter. He will speak to representatives of key organizations that serve consumers, professionals, legislators, and others interested in aging and eldercare.

The official U.S. government site for seniors has been renamed from "Access America for Seniors" to "FirstGov for Seniors." This site is one of several initiatives of the National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPRG), as a special project of Vice President Gore to get Americans connected to government services via the Internet. The Social Security Administration (SSA) agreed to create, host and maintain the site as a service especially geared toward senior citizens.

Currently the sites helps users access all government sites that provide services for senior citizens, such as SSA, Health Care Financing Administration, the Administration on Aging, the Department of Veterans Affairs, etc. There are also links to all federal agencies and all 50 States. Ultimately, the goal is to give older Americans the option of conducting their government business electronically, along with the ability to transact business with a wide range of government agencies and programs. Using a one-stop shopping approach , seniors will have access to agencies at the Federal, State and local levels. They will also be able to search for programs that meet their needs, without having to know which agency, at which level, can deliver the services they seek.

ElderWeb is proud to be the top listing in the "Services" section of FirstGov for Seniors, and it is one of the few non-government sources listed on the site.

There are thousands of healthcare sites on the Internet, but not all of them provide accurate information. SeniorNet has posted a special site to help consumers evaluate the information that they find on the Web. The site was developed by Vicky Elfrink, RN, C, PhD, a student in the nursing informatics certificate program at Duke University.

Jama recently re-published this article from September of 1900. "Recently a lady died in Chicago who had attained the distinction of having lived over a hundred years. As is usual in such cases, the lay press proceeded to give the reasons why she had lived so long. Among these, the one given most prominence was the alleged fact that she had taken no medicine nor consulted a physician since she was 18 years old. This was twisted and enlarged on by other journals until it has appeared in a majority of the newspapers of the country, and has made a text for many an editorial against the doctors. An investigation, however, spoils the whole story, for it shows that the old lady had been under the care of the same physician for twenty-seven years, that for the past fifteen he had attended her for illness at least every three months, and all this time her life had been regulated by his advice. Verily, the evolutions of the inner consciousness of the average reporter evolve strange things, and his imagination beholdeth many things that are not!"

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is targeting deceptive marketing practices of some Internet health sites in its "Operation Cure-All" campaign. The FTC alleges that these companies touted their products as being effective treatments or cures for various diseases, including arthritis, cancer, diabetes and AIDS, without adequate substantiation to support the claims. In addition, the FTC complaints challenge the companies' use of various types of sophisticated Internet techniques, such as metatags, hyperlinks, and mouseovers, to deceive consumers about the efficacy of their products. Last year the Commission announced an Internet surf that identified more than 400 Web sites making questionable claims for products sold to treat serious diseases. The FTC warns consumers to be on the lookout for the following typical phrases and marketing techniques that are used to deceive consumers:

- The product is advertised as a quick and effective cure-all for a wide range of ailments.
- Promoters use words like "scientific breakthrough," "miraculous cure," "exclusive product," "secret ingredient" or "ancient remedy."
- The text is written in "medicalese" - impressive-sounding terminology to disguise a lack of good science.
- The promoter claims the government, the medical profession or research scientists have conspired to suppress the product.
- The advertisement includes undocumented case histories or testimonials claiming amazing results.
- The product is advertised as available from only one source.