Protect yourself from www.uselessinformation.net
By Dr. Daniel Eubanks, Special Writer
We all should feel eternally indebted to Al Gore for inventing the Internet.
It is a veritable galactic, inexhaustible source of information.
Even I can, with the flick of a finger, find Sunday’s NFL scores as they unfold. I can confirm whether Sam’s Club in Langhorne has a Sony model XYZ-HDTV in stock, how much it costs, compare the cost with Best Buy, pay for it online and have them hold it for me to pick up.
I can get tomorrow’s tide chart for Sydney, Australia, and the weekly forecast for Sioux City, Iowa.
Yes, the Web provides access to a mind-boggling quantity and diversity of information. In fact, anyone can post almost anything on the Internet. But therein lies the trap.
Some information, like football scores, is a no-brainer. The Eagles lost 36-31. There’s no opinion, no conjecture — just disbelief, disappointment and indisputable fact.
Some information though, such as medical articles, provides enormous latitude for misleading, even harmful stuff.
You see, there is no editorial staff on the Internet whose job it is to verify truth and fact prior to publication. Remember, anyone can post anything.
Medical journals, both human and veterinary, employ a staff of editors who scrutinize submitted articles prior to publication. Medical professionals subscribe to journals with a reputation for publishing only legitimate papers.
Their staff filters information for authenticity, truth and fact. They look at the author’s credentials and for valid references for all claims and statements.
Original research articles must support their conclusions with controlled studies using experimental and control groups of sufficient size to stand up to statistical analysis using standard deviation, etc.
When I read an article from one of these sources, I can be reasonably confident the information has been examined as best as is humanly possible and found to present unbiased, documented, verifiable fact.
In contrast, much of the medical information available on the Internet is not filtered, screened or edited and contains a lot of unsubstantiated innuendo. It is someone’s opinion, true or false.
Clients present these papers to me frequently; sometimes pointing out to me what I don’t know; sometimes asking me what I think.
Here is what I recommend:
• Remember you yourself must distinguish between useful information and random bovine excrement.
• Before even reading an article, look for the author and his/her credentials.
A credible, qualified author will always be more than willing to let you know about it!
• Next, as you read, look for reference numbers or asterisks following statements of fact. A reliable article will substantiate claims by referring to the source of the information at the end of the text.
• If either a credible author or references cannot be found, then I would read the article being mindful this looks like someone’s opinion — right or wrong.
If I believed every one of these articles, I’m sure I’d be able to prevent birth defects, cure cancer and elude senility.
Medicine is both an art and a science. The science part is tricky business and can easily be misrepresented by subjective opinion rather than objective fact.
On the Internet you’re on your own. There is no editorial staff to help you out. You must be on guard to protect yourself from uselessinformation.net.

