The Internet is very fickle when it comes to rating healthcare providers. It can be a source of praise for excellent patient care, but it also can be used to slam a doctor’s reputation. Unfortunately, it is very hard for the doctor on the receiving end to counter bad reviews without violating HIPAA. Even more [...]
By Noble McIntyre
Noble McIntyre is the senior partner and owner of McIntyre Law, a firm that specializes in Oklahoma medical malpractice law.
When the Affordable Care Act became law on March 23, 2010, it opened the door to healthcare for many people who previously had been unable to afford it. For this reason alone, the new [...]
Social media gives users access to health news and opinions like never before. This has its perks—informed patients, support groups, and more. It also has its downfalls, like our recently discussed Cyberchondria. And the latest news—it has given rogue pharmacies the opportunity to market illicit and prescription drugs online.
The International Narcotics Control Board reported on [...]
From Marc Battaglia of TheSparkReport: “Doctor visits have steadily declined since 2007. Your first thought may be, ‘well of course, they’re just finding information online — or getting advice from friends.’ But surprisingly, surveys show they’re not doing that either.”
The article goes on to explain that in a recent survey, The Center for Studying Health [...]
Odds are if you’re a physician who has Googled yourself, you’ve found some online reviews left by patients. Many of these reviews will be positive, but no matter how good a physician you are, you are likely to find negative reviews as well. Especially in cases where you feel the negative reviews are untrue or [...]
You may have heard the buzzword “mHealth” thrown around recently, as it seems to be gaining traction in the language of health technology. I recently stumbled across it in research, and even wrote about it, without giving much thought to the word, in a recent post, “Healthcare apps to reach more than a billion downloads by 2016.”
According to [...]
I previously wrote about the increasing use of social media for emergency response, as well as the use of social media to track down a Legionnaires’ Disease outbreak at the Playboy mansion. It’s no secret that social media is growing, and the potential applications to health are tracking right along with it.
So are doctors keeping [...]
I just finished reading an interesting article by Rick Donahue, MD, “The secret to better patient care is time.” Dr. Donahue makes several well-thought-out points about how spending more time with patients can go far in helping to fix the healthcare system.  Â
He says he was an “island doctor” for 10 years, which gave him more time with [...]
Interesting article here from my local NPR station. For a while now, pharmaceutical companies have been able to set up Facebook pages — sometimes in the guise of patient support groups — as a way to get their drugs mentioned.
People on these pages (real people? “plants” from the pharm companies?) sometimes mention uses for drugs [...]
In 2008, Google introduced Google Health, a personal health record service for people to better track their health information online. After just 3 years, Google has announced that the service is shutting down.
The idea originally was for users to create health profiles and input their health information online as a way to keep all information [...]
