Online Health, Practical Advice to Find Reliable Sources
Searching and finding information about the different types of diabetes online would seem like a simple task. Searching for the term “diabetes” yields hundreds of thousands of results from various sources including social networks, specialized blogs, wikis, podcasts, commercial sites and different videos.
Not every source produces medically accurate information and some deliberately publish misinformation which can confirm our own biases about health-related issues. Knowing all of this, it’s important to be able to distinguish which sources are legitimate. Read our tips below on how to find reliable sources who publish information about type 2 diabetes.
Doctor Google
The diagnosis of different types of diabetes requires a team of health care professionals. With the help of tools such as a measurement of capillary glucose, diabetes (of some types specifically) can be confirmed or ruled out. Diabetes treatment despite the basic concepts will depend largely on the multidisciplinary team caring for the person, the type of diabetes and other factors. These factors are obviously not always addressed online.
Peer to peer diabetes education has long demonstrated its benefits. For this reason, it is important that all participants always have the necessary and required knowledge to be able to educate others about diabetes and to help them make the best decisions. There are bloggers, YouTubers, Twitterers and conference speakers, whose resumes and experience can be easily verifiable. Below you will find some recommendations.
Tips for identifying reliable sources
Identifying the type of site: First, identify what type of site you are reviewing
- gov or gob: identifies a government agency
- edu: identifies an educational institution
- org: identifies a non-profit association, research societies, advocacy groups
- com: identifies commercial sites (laboratories, businesses some hospitals) and individuals including bloggers, influencers and others.
It is very important that you identify if the site has a commercial, research, or informational objective. This will give you an idea about the objectives that the site had when publishing the information you are reading.
Who is the writer?
Make sure that the site provides the authoring information, who is the writer? What is the writer’s experience on the subject? Reliable sites generally have a section where you can read about the author and where you will also find contact information and references to publications.
Intention of the site.
If you have already reviewed who writes for the site, check the purpose of this site. Does the person share their experience in managing their type of diabetes and do they want to exchange their experience? Is it a person with diabetes who is also a health professional and wants to provide advice? Be wary of sites where the information provided attempts to replace formal medical advice or where personal opinion is presented as fact.
Dates of publication.
It is important to review the publication dates. If the site is an official source of research, such research could be out of date or there could be newer studies that propose new and/or more accurate results.
Privacy.
A site which objective is informative or research, generally will not request information from the visitor unless it is a blog that offers a subscription to keep you updated on the subject. If so, review the privacy policies and the terms and conditions under which the handling of the information you are providing will be regulated.
Usually, the policies and terms contain legal language that is not easy to understand, but if the policies and/or terms mention that your data can be shared with other groups, be careful, this is a sign that probably indicates that you will be receiving unsolicited mail or that your data could be used to try to sell you something later.
Sponsorships and transparency.
Some sites are sponsored. Those that have content that is expressly sponsored must indicate it as such in a section or in the note, article, or video where they should mention the product, device, or otherwise.
References and sources of consultation.
Look for references and sources of consultation in the articles or request this information from the author in the case it is an opinion and it is not a specialist’s advice. Generally, the sources of consultation will be indicated in the articles that require it.
Remember that you must be careful when searching for information online and that it is your responsibility to choose reliable sources. Talk about reliable sources with a team of professionals taking care of your diabetes. Choose the best sources for your query as a team.
In our following articles, we will help you identify reliable information presenters.
References
Cribb, A., & Duncan, P. (2009). Health Promotion and Professional Ethics. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Health On the Net, promotes transparent and reliable health information online through HONcode certification. (nd) Recovered from https://www.hon.ch/HONcode/Patients/Conduct_sp.html
Salcedo, VT, Fernández-Luque, L., & Basagoiti, I. (2010). The e-patient and social networks. ITACA-Sabien.
About the authors
Dr. Carlos Antillón
He is a pediatric endocrinologist, graduated from the Children’s Hospital of Mexico “Federico Gómez” in 2002. Since then he has dedicated himself to his private practice at the ABC Medical Center Santa Fe and the Spanish Hospital. Dr. Antillón is a member of the Mexican Society, the European Society of Pediatric Endocrinology and the International Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes Society (ISPAD). He is convinced that diabetes education and diabetes technology are two great tools that are helpful to improve the quality of life for people with type 1 diabetes.
Dra. Natalia de la Garza
She is an internist and an endocrinologist by the Autonomous University of Nuevo León. She has been a diabetes educator specializing in micro-infusers since 1997. She has more than 20 years of professional practice with the use of technologies for the treatment and care of diabetes. She is an organizer of summer camps for children, teenagers and adults with diabetes and various educational programs. She has written multiple national and international publication articles as well as papers in medical congresses.
Lic. Mariana Gómez
She has a university degree in psychology and she is a diabetes educator. She currently works as senior project manager at Beyond Type 1 and is in charge of the Spanish programs for that organization. Mariana has collaborated in different health organizations on the management of different types of diabetes since 2006. She has more than 10 years of experience as a conference speaker and as a health editor.
Ing. Gustavo Muñoz
He has more than 12 years of experience as an entrepreneur and software developer. His experience has involved him in very diverse businesses, some traditional and others technological. He developed an artificial pancreas project with components in open-source software (simpancreas) with which he treats his condition as a person with type 1 diabetes and an open-source software that emulates people with diabetes (glucosym) to support the development of technology in the diabetes treatment. His artificial pancreas project led him to be a speaker at TEDx.
