Sifting Through the Net

Eight in 10 Internet users surveyed by the Pew Internet and American Life Project said they had looked for health information online. "People go to the computer seeking answers, and they find them," says Paul Wallace, a physician and medical director for Kaiser Permanente. "But all too often they find far too many answers from too many sources for them to really understand what is happening to them or know what to do. By the time they come in for care, the common plea is, 'Help me understand what all this information means for me.' " Although there are excellent sites -- including http://www.nih.gov and http://www.WebMD.com as well as information from disease-specific nonprofit and support groups such as http://www.asco.org (a service of the American Society of Clinical Oncology) and http://www.healthfinder.gov-- much of the health information online is inaccurate or misleading.