Ask HN: How reliable is WebMD?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15549064

by assafmo • 9 years ago

13 5 9 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

When reading about general stuff (like sugar or diet), not looking for simptoms?

xiphias• 9 years ago

It has 18000 results just for weight loss, and if you look at different diets for weight loss, they are conflicting, so I wouldn't trust it.

I think PubMed is still the best thing we've got: read medical publications directly, even those are not clear, but at least closer to the data source.

assafmo2• 9 years ago

Thanks!

bimboop• 9 years ago

PubMed Health (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/), MEDLINE Plus (https://medlineplus.gov/), UpToDate Basics (https://www.uptodate.com/contents/table-of-contents/patient-...) all better than WebMD. I am a medical librarian.

assafmo2• 9 years ago

Thanks! I'll have a look

onuralp• 9 years ago

According to this study[0] on the diagnostic (and triage) accuracy of online symptom checkers (including WebMD among others), the reliability is a coin toss.

[0] http://www.bmj.com/content/351/bmj.h3480/

Ask HN: How reliable is WebMD?

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