Friday, September 24, 2004
Health care goes online
[Fred L. Smith, Jr., "The Internet as Medical Adviser?," The Washington Times, 22 September 2004.]
The internet provides individuals with a host of information on virtually any topic. Medicine is no exception. How that reality will play out remains to be seen:
The energetic role of the Internet is beginning to supplant the priestly physician in the medical advisory role.
The hierarchic medical structure of the past—the doctors as high priests dispensing their knowledge in oracular fashion—is rapidly being replaced by the noisier, but vastly more knowledgeable Web.
It's possible some people may find this new, decentralized world a bit confusing. No one, however, is likely to be more confused by it than the Food and Drug Administration. After all, such a Web-centric world will challenge FDA's basic operating premise, which is centralized control over drug and device use. Such control is unlikely to survive the pressures of this "take charge" Web-world.
The Internet offers great hope for a healthier tomorrow. It has emerged when the centralized health technology gateway role of the FDA is already crumbling. For those of us who believe the FDA's regulatory rigidity has disserved the public, by delaying need therapies and raising the cost of new drugs and devices, this emergence comes not a moment too soon.
[Fred L. Smith, Jr., "The Internet as Medical Adviser?," The Washington Times, 22 September 2004.]
The internet provides individuals with a host of information on virtually any topic. Medicine is no exception. How that reality will play out remains to be seen:
The energetic role of the Internet is beginning to supplant the priestly physician in the medical advisory role.
The hierarchic medical structure of the past—the doctors as high priests dispensing their knowledge in oracular fashion—is rapidly being replaced by the noisier, but vastly more knowledgeable Web.
It's possible some people may find this new, decentralized world a bit confusing. No one, however, is likely to be more confused by it than the Food and Drug Administration. After all, such a Web-centric world will challenge FDA's basic operating premise, which is centralized control over drug and device use. Such control is unlikely to survive the pressures of this "take charge" Web-world.
The Internet offers great hope for a healthier tomorrow. It has emerged when the centralized health technology gateway role of the FDA is already crumbling. For those of us who believe the FDA's regulatory rigidity has disserved the public, by delaying need therapies and raising the cost of new drugs and devices, this emergence comes not a moment too soon.
Comments:
Post a Comment
