Healthcare Online for Dummies

When I was diagnosed with cancer three years ago and spent a lot of time researching the disease and its treatment, "Healthcare Online" was exactly the kind of book I needed but didn't have. It's clear and easy-to-use, though quite sophsticated in its research assistance, and very, very helpful in providing ways to separate out the valid information from the misleading or phony stuff. In the areas I researched intensively, it lists all the sources I eventually found for myself, plus some very useful sites I never discovered. I often counsel newly-diagnosed individuals with my disease and now will pass on this book as a gold mine for their own inquiries.

Healthcare for Dummies validates the Internet as a research tool. It provides qualified healthcare sources with which to help ourselves, our families and friends. I needed immediate information to help my mother cope with my Father who has Alzheimer's. I not only found organizations with information on Alzheimer's, but sources for my Mother (the caregiver) to contact for guidance and assistance. Healthcare is rarely one issue. This guide can assist in the search for information on conditions, treatments as well as insurance and life stage issues -- all available on the Internet.

This book is an excellent resource for people of all ages who are interested in finding credible information from common day-to-day ailments to life-threatening diseases. In the confusing and unfortunately, sometimes misleading world of the Internet, this book helps pave a clear path to finding the most accurate and up to date information available today.

As the Web gets bigger (and often crazier,) there's a greater and greater need to be able to separate the "signal" from the "noise," the truth from the false. This is especially difficult when you get into the area of health care -- which is, often, an art form, not a hard and fast science. The Wolinskys make incredible sense. "Whether in an emergency or a non-emergency situation, nothing, not even Internet technology can replace that old-fashioned, hands-on, in-person doctor-patient relationship. Nothing." This is just one sentence from one chapter, yet it represents the attitude of the Wolinskys -- whether they are explaining how to find a doctor or a hospital, buying medicines or trying alternative medicines, infants, kids, teens, women's, senior's health care --no matter. This book provides the healthcare sense and sensibilities so desperately needed today.

This is the definitive source for healthcare information available online. More than a directory of Web sites, this book combines a plethora of URLs with useful information on the key health issues facing us today. I especially appreciated the Mickey Mantle quote that opens the chapter on Men's Health: "If I knew I'd live this long, I would have taken better care of myself." Hopefully, with the information referenced in this book, I can take better care of myself, and in turn, live longer.