There's a common concern out there: Can you trust the information you find on the internet? And just as important, if not more so, is: "How much of healthcare information online is accurate?". Here, we'll dive into how to find accurate healthcare information online.

The short answer is: It depends. You can't trust all of the healthcare information you find online but some of it is definitely reliable. Let me explain.

1. Use trusted sites

When you're looking for healthcare information online, you'll probably start with a Google search. But you don't want to trust every website you find. Some of them will have outdated information.

A good way to know if a website is reliable is if it's sponsored by Federal Government agencies. To check for this, go to usa.gov. While that's a great resource to help you verify a medical website, it's not necessarily the first resource you should use. Here's a list of medical websites that are trustworthy:

1. MedlinePlus.gov: Not only does this website have a lot of useful and accurate healthcare information, but it also has an online tutorial on how to know if you can trust online healthcare information,
2. Smart Patients: This website was founded to help patients learn about medical developments dealing with their conditions and it does exactly that. Smart Patients has a built-in search engine that helps people find and track clinical trials of their choosing and discuss them on the website's forums,
3. Drugs.com: A huge part of healthcare is the medications you need to take. Drugs.com is fantastic because it gives you information about drugs, their uses, and how they might react to other medications. This site also has its own search engine to help you find legal drugs by their appearance or name. It should be noted that the search engine only pulls from the US,
4. National Health Information Center (NHIC): NHIC helps patients and medical professionals get in touch with organizations to get reliable answers to their healthcare questions. This site also keeps a calendar of days, weeks, and months with the purpose of helping people learn about various healthcare topics,
5. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health: Like USA.gov, this website helps patients verify a medical website's reliability. It has a list of healthcare websites that are useful and also detailed guidelines on how to evaluate a medical website.

2. Check the healthcare information dates

If a website doesn't have current information, that's a huge red flag. When you're searching online, pay close attention to the date the information was written. If the information is older, it could still be relevant and accurate, but it could also be out of date. As a general rule of thumb, the most current medical information is generally the most trustworthy.

3. Ask yourself some questions

If you're using a website other than the ones mentioned above, ask yourself some questions.

1. Does it have .gov at the end of its URL? Another general rule of thumb, if the website ends with .gov, it's probably pretty reliable. This doesn't mean that websites ending in something else like .com or .org aren't reliable. But most government healthcare websites are solid sources of information. You can also check the site's "about us" section to see who runs it,
2. What's the purpose of the website? Is it selling you something? The websites we mentioned above are all there to solve a problem in the medical field and many of them are government-run. Look into the purpose of the website. If it seems sketchy or like the main purpose is to sell you something, then you should take it with a grain of salt,
3. Where does the website's medical information come from? Is it based on medical research or does it come from somewhere else? Does the website tell you where the information comes from? If the information is based on scientific research from a reputable source that's a great start,
4. Does the website promise the moon? Typically, if information seems too good to be true, it usually is. If they promise you a huge return with very little work or effort, then you should be very skeptical of that site,
5. Have experts reviewed the information? Quality medical information will have been reviewed by experts. Check the bottom of the page for the names fo medical experts who approve the information.

Is the site news or advertising?

Telling the difference between news and advertising websites can be hard. A lot of the time, advertising websites try to look like news websites to seem more credible. They'll even use logos from actual news sites.

Fake news or advertising websites tend to endorse certain products and even link to sales websites. News websites rarely do either of those things. If all of the comments are positive and you aren't able to comment, that's usually a sign it's a fake news/advertising website. News organizations almost always let you comment and they will usually have negative and positive comments.

Summary: How much of healthcare information online is accurate?

In summation, you should always be skeptical when looking for healthcare information and make sure you run what you find online by your doctor. Check to see what kind of institution runs the website and when it was last updated. And you should only trust information that's unbiased and based on scientific research.

One of the best ways to avoid websites with inaccurate information is to start with trusted websites. Use the websites we listed above to start your search. Run the website through usa.gov to see if it's run by the government.

Following these steps will help you find accurate healthcare information online. How much of healthcare information online is accurate? A lot. But there's also a lot of inaccurate healthcare information online. You just have to be careful about it.

Have you ever come across a healthcare website with information that just seemed too good to be true? Comment "yes" if you have and "no" if you haven't. I'm just curious how many of you have run into that and if it's been a frequent problem.