Who do you trust for health information?

1. Crowd vs. Experts
Who to trust for health information?
Alexandra Carmichael, Mar 2009

2. I’m a panelist for the Great Debate
“Wiki vs. Expert”:
What's the best approach to knowledge creation?

3. The Lineup:
Experts vs. Users
Slig
htly
ske
we
d?

4. My Reaction:
Help!
OK, deep breath.

5. I asked my 1300 / friends:
Who do you trust for health information?

6. Lots of replies and discussion from:
social media advocates
patients
doctors
regular folks
self-trackers

7. Theme #1: Who is an Expert?
Experts Patients
Experts are not But not all patients
necessarily MDs are experts
@ePatientDave, health trackers

8. Theme #2: What kind of patients?
Chronic Acute
Patients have valuable Patients don’t have
expertise to advise or as much expertise,
complement doctors rely more on doctors
Julio Bonis Sanz, MD PhD

9. Theme #3: Are statistics better than experts?
This book says YES!
Experts are good at Linear statistical models
defining measures are better at
making predictions

10. Theme #4: Can patients run their own clinical trials?
ALS Lithium study -
patients self-tracking at PatientsLikeMe

11. So what’s the answer? Crowd or experts?
1. It depends.
2. Transparent collaboration is a start.
3. Deep breathing is always good. :)

12. Other themes, ideas, who-to-trust thoughts?
Write to me!
alexandra@curetogether.com
twitter: @accarmichael