When I was working as a medical assistant I would run into all kinds of different issues that people had. And, sometimes even the doctor didn’t know all of the problems people had. One of our biggest resources was www.WebMD.com. This website focuses on health information, and was a very useful tool for me.
This website is conventional in many ways (website conventions). It starts with a homepage that is broken down and organized by a few different ways. The main tool bar lets you search by ailment. There is also a search bar to just type in what you’re looking for. And, like other websites it has hyperlinks to different areas; and a subtle background to make it easier to read. Also, it has lots of ads, and who can have a website with out ads?
There are also other areas that are similar to other websites, but with their own little traits. There is an index area, which isn’t amazing in it’s self; but when you click on it, you are in access to the largest medical library I’ve ever seen. Doctors are able to look things up with a click of a button, instead of trying to flip through a book, or go from one website to another to find what they need. Also, unlike other websites I’ve seen, you can actually get on to different blog sites of other doctors to ask direct questions. In another twist to the conventions, WebMD has a tool bar that is actually just a body, and you are able to click on the area of the body that you are trying to research on. And this website isn’t just for doctors; it is also a way for patients to get information they need on ailments, as well as a link to other things like diet, exercise groups, and others. This is a website that stands out to me because it’s not just for one group of people, which is a twist on conventions in it’s self.
In writing this post it has occurred to me how amazing the information age is. It’s not that WebMD is a crazy, new site with tons of new information or anything; it’s that in trying to do research in the medical field, you can be lead astray by how the books are set up. With the innovation of this website it makes it easier to find your subject and stay on your subject. It’s also very time consuming to try and collect information from thousands of different books. In WebMD you have almost every medical book you can think of at the touch of the mouse.
Living in this age, there are millions of different websites out there and all have conventional and non-conventional aspects. I hope that in reading this you can see the specific little things that WebMD uses to try and set it’s self apart from the rest. It is a site that is unique and all encompassing at the same time.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
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5 comments:
I agree with your new statement, it is much easier for the general public to find complicated information now. You probably know better than I do how confusing medical books can be for the average person, and from my understanding WebMD makes it easy for anyone to understand something from the medical world. And while this website isn’t too flashy, when looking for information, I don’t think anyone is really worried about how “cool” it is. The fact that you can ask actual doctors without having to call and wait for hours to get through to someone who might know the answer to your question, the solution is now simple. Even for the curious consumer who saw something on the news and craves more information, this is a great resource and tool to all people.
It is interesting that you worked as a medical assistant. I am also interested in medicine. I have visited the WebMD site before. I can see how it is very useful to someone working in the medical profession. It provides a lot of information. It can be very useful to the general public because it can answer questions and save people from having to call their physician and wait. I like that it provides information on preventative care as well, such as diet and exercise. Preventative care is important and people should learn about it even if they are not in the medical profession. Therefore, this site can be useful to anyone.
This does sound like a very good website to use if you need to find medical information. I hate doing research about anything medical in a book there are so many different topics it's hard to find exactly what you need. I also don't like researching online because there's no way to tell if the information you find is credible or unreliable. I was in the hospital for a long time and there is so much that doctors have to know. I don't understand how they can remember so much information for so many years. It's good to have a website that's easy to navigate if they need to find something.
It’s really ironic to me that you wrote about something like this, because both of my parents work/have worked in the medical field, and my house has always been filled with books on all sorts of things, from homeopathic studies to anatomy books. I think that if the internet would have been a bigger influence back when my parents were both taking all their classes, it really would have helped them out, and probably been a lot cheaper for them too. (Does that show how old my mom and dad are?) I honestly think that this site will be a big help to my friends who are going into this field.
Your website that you are talking about is a good one. I just heard of it for the very first time a month ago when my friend got pregnant and we were researching the web for pregnancy information. That’s cool that you were a medical assistant. I bet there were good benefits. I want to do something in the medical field too, I just haven’t gotten it all figured out yet. I agree with you that this web site is really easy to use. My friends and I found some very important and useful information on this site. Great post!
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