Respiratory Allergies: How Can Patients Find Reliable Health Information Online?

The Internet has revolutionised the computer and communications world like nothing before. Daily life without it is unthinkable. A quick internet search can answer any question no matter how important or trivial. As medicine becomes more individualised and complex, and access to physicians, primary care and hospital settings becomes more difficult in many countries, patients are increasingly turning to the internet to supplement their knowledge. But how accurate is the information they access and what does it mean for their care?

A new unique study carried out under Dr Howraman Meteran’s supervision was published in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Journal and looked at Allergic Rhinitis. It found that the videos available online for patients were at best helpful and at worst useless or misleading.

You can find the paper here.

In this episode, we invited Prof. Vibeke Backer, Pulmonologist at the ENT Department at the Rigs-hosptalet in Copenhagen and EUFOREA Asthma Expert Panel member and Dr Howraman Meteran, from the Department of Respiratory Medicine at the Copenhagen University Hospital in Copenhagen, Denmark, to explained today’s misleading information on respiratory allergies on the internet.

Turning to the internet may not be the panacea that many patients think it is. There is a definite gap here in terms of how to educate patients and provide important advice. And to tell us more about this gap, which can be filled by the excellent work of EUFOREA, is Mrs Elizabeth Van Staeyen who is the Scientific Communications & Advocacy Manager at EUFOREA. So, can we really trust the information on the Internet?