> > This posting from Craig Silva was caught in the error cycle because it
> > included the heading from Judy Quail...Liz Rykert

Must keep an eye on that - damned windows mail client doesn't let you
see what's going out.

> Health care providers are not in control anyway.  All the information the
> physician has regarding disease, medications, treatments, etc., can be
> found in libraries, on Medline and Cinahl searches, from the
> pharmaceutical company, etc.

Its true, the information has always been there if you went to look.
But there has been a qualitative change in its accessability. A case
in point:

A law research organisation in Australia (I can't remember the exact
details) as a public service to lawyers, students etc, decided to put
Law Reports on the Web.  These reports cited various aspects of
Family law cases (Divorce proceedings). As a result there was a
public outcry over the invasion of privacy that this constituted -
someone could key in a name and up would pop the reports and perhaps
some less than savoury details of the divorce proceedings.

The interesting part of course is that this information has always
been available in publically accessible law libraries and there had
been no complaint, however as a result of web access, anyone from the
comfort of their own home could dredge through this information. The
change in accessability has created new issues of privacy.

It has been suggested for example that extensive use of a search
engine like Alta Vista can also create similar privacy problems -
by searching usenet news and searching on someone's name you can
track their involvement/postings to whichever groups they partcipate
in.  A posting to alt.sex for example could be tracked and noted.

BTW - can CLICK4HP archives be searched    (:->


> Health educators do have an ethical responsibility to see that the
> information we offer the public is sound, tested, proven, will cause no
> harm, etc.  At the same time, we cannot censor somebody else because we
> do not know where the next medical breakthrough will occur (penicillin
> came from a pesky mold), nor do we know if what sounds like poppycock
> today will be the treatment of choice ten years from now (remember how
> all the doctors in the 1960's thought that smoking had nothing to do with
> lung cancer? and the few doctors who spoke out were not taken
> seriously?).  Health educators also need to provide critical skills
> learning reminding people not to believe everything we say either unless
> it meets their criteria for themselves and the knowledge they have.

I agree

Reagrds

Craig
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Craig Silva, Electronic Outreach Program Officer
Victorian Health Promotion Foundation, Melbourne Australia
e-mail: [log in to unmask], Tel: 61 3 9345 3211
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