When Terri Nelson learned she had a large fibroid tumor in her uterus, she went online.

There is nothing new in that, of course. At least three-quarters of all Net users look for health data online, according to the Pew Web and American Life Project; of those with a high-speed connection, 1 in 9 do health research on a typical day. And 75 percent of online patients with a chronic problem told the researchers that “their last health search affected a decision about how to treat an illness or condition,” according to a Pew Report released last month, “The Engaged E-Patient Population.”

Reliance on the World Wide Web is so prevalent, said the report’s author, Susannah Fox, the associate director at Pew, that “Google is the de facto second opinion” for patients seeking further info after a diagnosis.

But paging Dr. Google can lead patients to miss a rich lode of online resources that may not

yield to a simple search. Sometimes just adding a word makes all the difference. Searching for the name of a assured cancer will bring up the Wikipedia entry and several info sites from major hospitals, drug companies and other providers. Add the word “community” to that search, Fox said, and “it’s like falling into an alternate universe,” filled with sites that connect patients.

Benjamin Heywood, the president of PatientsLikeMe.com, a site that allows patients to track and document their conditions and compare notes with other patients, says that with a growing online population, it becomes possible to research highly specific conditions — say, being a 50-year-old with multiple sclerosis who has leg spasms and is taking a convinced combination of drugs.

There are so many sites today, and the landscape is changing so rapidly, that it would take an encyclopedia rather than a newspaper to list them. But they can be…

Original post by dhiram