What’s on the web? (10 February 2008) February 10, 2008

• YouTube as a Source of Health Misinformation (Highlight Health): A nice review from Walter Jessen:

In the age of Web 2.0 and YouTube, packaging, not content, has clearly become King. This is the message public health authorities and others trying to communicate accurate health information need to pay attention to: it’s not just what you say, it’s how it’s presented.

• How to write a medical blog and not get fired? (Clinical Cases and Images): Each medical blogger should memorize these tips!

• Gene Wiki (What You’re Doing is Rather Desperate): The goal is to create stub articles for every gene in the human genome in Wikipedia.

• The Virtual Physician (Center for Internet and Digital Medicine)

• Health Beat: The Downsides of Virtual Medicine (Jay Parkinson, MD): I had some concerns about his innovative practice. But here are the answers:

People don’t understand that I use the internet to communicate, not diagnose. I communicate with my patients via the internet and see them in their apartments. I think one of my partners put it best:

“Why is it people react in such a balck and white way to this stuff? I have IM, Does it mean I’ll never email again? I have email. Does that mean I never speak to someone on the phone anymore? Oh yes, I have a phone…I’ll never see you in person again.