While watching television this morning I saw a commercial for WebMD, the American corporation that is believed to provide health information services to the public.  The commercial promoted a “heath check” for depression.  It went further to recommend that if the viewer had any “feelings of sadness” he or she should visit the website to answer a few questions to “easily and discreetly assess your symptoms, treatments, lifestyle, and medical history”.  The commercial did a good job of making it sound like we all should go to the website as the symptoms described were very vague.  Individuals are no longer persuaded to ask doctors for help.  The creation of websites like WebMD make it seem as though doctors aren’t even needed for a diagnosis.  Such websites give individuals another means to answer health questions or problems.  Could this possibly have to do with how expensive doctor visits are? Or how hard it is to even get an appointment with doctors? 

Through a variety of multiple choice questions the individual can determine what is wrong with us on the WebMD website.  The slogan for the website is “Better Information. Better Health”.  However, I have used this website many times in the past few years and my sore throat has been diagnosed as the Black plague on more than one occasion, but I’m still here today.  So either I’m really strong and have a great immune system or WebMD isn’t as good as it says it is. 

http://www.webmd.com/