Doctors Stress On Importance Of Credible Information On Diseases and Procedures Online

Hyderabad, 15 Sept 2019:

Stressing on the need to establish a credible portal where patients can access all the information related to a disease, procedure, or specialists, doctors at the conference said that doing so will ensure that patients are not drwan to quacks or wrong procedures. They said that many patients post diet charts or tips online without even talking to their doctors and this, in turn, might have an adverse effect on people’s health.

“We don’t know the authenticity of a post or tweet, but many might follow these tips to treat a condition. There should be some online monitoring so that such kind of posts don’t mislead patients,” said founder of Indian Alliance of Patients Groups, Ratna Devi. “Having a credible portal will ensure that people get right kind of help. When you have a portal run by the state or a particular hospital chain, people will visit that authentic portal before visiting random pages. Apart from keeping away from quacks, having a dedicated portal for patient care will also ensure that they get the right information,” Devi said.

Doctors said that this portal will also help patients in making informed choices as they know which specialist or hospital to visit when they have a particular problem. The Times Of India