Health Affairs August 28, 2023
Millions of people use the internet every day to seek and share information about the symptoms, causes, and treatment of diseases. A quick search on the internet for a symptom or phrase such as “bloody stool causes” will return a list of potential culprits: ulcers, anal fissures, hemorrhoids, diverticular bleeding, inflammatory bowel diseases, constipation, and colorectal cancer, among others. This variation of possible causes can induce anxiety in some, spur others to seek additional information from medical experts, and leave still others unsure of what to do due to structural barriers that impede access to care. There are opportunities for using information from internet sources to understand and develop policies to address pre-hospital diagnostic delay for specific conditions, but such...
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