Doctors know their patients use the web to research medical symptoms and treatments. They've been down the internet rabbit hole themselves. They know searching can include plenty of worrisome — and even wrong — information.
Get simple tips from Mayo Clinic experts to focus your searches on sources you can trust.
We asked Mayo Clinic experts: What should patients know about researching health information online?
Mikel Prieto, M.D., Transplant Surgery: The main thing is be very careful with the source. Anybody can write things online, people that are not qualified. People can write things that are really not true. There's a lot of garbage, frankly, online.
Tatnai Burnett, M.D., Obstetrics and Gynecology: So I love the internet. The internet is great, and I research things on the internet too. The problem with the internet is that it's not … you're not guaranteed to be getting good medical or sourced advice.
Kay Kosberg, R.N., Transplant Center: I think everybody's going to research their condition online, but I think it's to not be the only thing you do when you're looking for medical advice.
Alina Allen, M.D., Gastroenterology and Hepatology: Don't go down the rabbit hole. Trust sites that are good centers, trustworthy and respected medical sites, and always communicate with your doctor.
Max Trenerry, Ph.D., Psychology: I see a lot of patients who have done a lot of online research and they're frightened.
Karthik Giridhar, M.D., Medical Oncology: There are a lot of very interesting opinions and views that you can find on the internet. That can be quite, quite scary at times.
Dr. Prieto: If you're looking for a health condition online, make sure that the source you are reading it from is a reliable source — places like Mayo Clinic or other organizations that are prestigious that put stuff out that you know is going to be true.
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