People are taking a more active role in their healthcare More than ever before, people are starting to educate themselves on their health issues. When a diagnosis of epilepsy is made, many people begin researching immediately. "What is epilepsy?", "how did I get it?", "what is my 'new life' going to look like?", "is a cure available?", "what might my treatment look like?", "who is the best at treating epilepsy in my province/state/region?", etc. Of course, these are all things that you can find out from your physician, but many of us still want to find out for ourselves. Education is empowering, and it's nice to be able to go into the doctors office with some knowledge of your condition so you can ask more pointed questions.
The internet can be a good resource to learn about health issues, but watch out! The internet has become an increasingly powerful resource for learning about health issues. Type "epilepsy" into
google and you'll get over 11 million "hits". It's important to note that not all electronic resources (so called "e-resources" or "e-tools") are trust-worthy sources. Not many of us questioned the credibility of books. We pretty much assumed that if it was published, then the author was probably a credible source (which is a bit of a fallacy in retrospect, but I won't go down that rabbit hole today). On the internet, however, anyone can write about whatever they want, making it very difficult to find accurate, trustworthy information. I mean look, even I can write a blog!
Some tips on how to find trustworthy internet resources Here are some tips to help you navigate through the e-quagmire. First, there are many epilepsy organizations that have very trustworthy sites (e.g.,
Epilepsy Toronto,
Epilepsy.com,
Epilepsy Foundation, etc.). The medical content of these sites is often written by an epileptologist.
Another reliable online resource for epilepsy information is the website of a hospital (e.g.,
SickKids ). This week I received an email from the
Cleveland Clinic about their new online resource centre for individuals living with epilepsy. The Cleveland Clinic is one of the largest research institutes in the United States. It is also considered one of the leading medical centres in the U.S.
Currently, the Cleveland Clinic is promoting
their online epilepsy clinic. A few highlights of this site are:
Epilepsy Medical GuidePediatric Epilepsy Support GroupWebcast Series "Living with Epilepsy" Blogs, as much as it pains me to say this, are often good for hearing peoples' opinions -- but they are not always trustworthy in terms of the accuracy of content. I try to keep this blog as factual as possible, but I also try to keep it highly informal.
Tidy summary So there you have it. Keep learning as much as possible about epilepsy. Keep asking the tough questions until you get an answer. Just be careful which sites you let influence your opinion- the sites of epilepsy organizations and hospital epilepsy clinics tend to be best. Also, check out the Cleveland Clinic site -- it looks very good.
As always, if there is a topic you'd like me to post on-- then please let me know. Email me or post a comment below.
Onward and upward.
Kirk.
More than ever before, people are starting to educate themselves on their health issues. When a diagnosis of epilepsy is made, many people begin researching immediately. "What is epilepsy?", "how did I get it?", "what is my 'new life' going to look like?", "is a cure available?", "what might my treatment look like?", "who is the best at treating epilepsy in my province/state/region?", etc. Of course, these are all things that you can find out from your physician, but many of us still want to find out for ourselves. Education is empowering, and it's nice to be able to go into the doctors office with some knowledge of your condition so you can ask more pointed questions.
The internet can be a good resource to learn about health issues, but watch out!
The internet has become an increasingly powerful resource for learning about health issues. Type "epilepsy" into google and you'll get over 11 million "hits". It's important to note that not all electronic resources (so called "e-resources" or "e-tools") are trust-worthy sources. Not many of us questioned the credibility of books. We pretty much assumed that if it was published, then the author was probably a credible source (which is a bit of a fallacy in retrospect, but I won't go down that rabbit hole today). On the internet, however, anyone can write about whatever they want, making it very difficult to find accurate, trustworthy information. I mean look, even I can write a blog!
Some tips on how to find trustworthy internet resources
Here are some tips to help you navigate through the e-quagmire. First, there are many epilepsy organizations that have very trustworthy sites (e.g., Epilepsy Toronto, Epilepsy.com, Epilepsy Foundation, etc.). The medical content of these sites is often written by an epileptologist.
Another reliable online resource for epilepsy information is the website of a hospital (e.g., SickKids ). This week I received an email from the Cleveland Clinic about their new online resource centre for individuals living with epilepsy. The Cleveland Clinic is one of the largest research institutes in the United States. It is also considered one of the leading medical centres in the U.S.
Currently, the Cleveland Clinic is promoting their online epilepsy clinic. A few highlights of this site are:
Epilepsy Medical Guide
Pediatric Epilepsy Support Group
Webcast Series "Living with Epilepsy"
Blogs, as much as it pains me to say this, are often good for hearing peoples' opinions -- but they are not always trustworthy in terms of the accuracy of content. I try to keep this blog as factual as possible, but I also try to keep it highly informal.
Tidy summary
So there you have it. Keep learning as much as possible about epilepsy. Keep asking the tough questions until you get an answer. Just be careful which sites you let influence your opinion- the sites of epilepsy organizations and hospital epilepsy clinics tend to be best. Also, check out the Cleveland Clinic site -- it looks very good.
As always, if there is a topic you'd like me to post on-- then please let me know. Email me or post a comment below.
Onward and upward.
Kirk.