Digital media could work as tool to improve health

By Ronnie Cohen NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – After a desperate mother in South Wales, UK, posted a video of her baby having a seizure on Facebook, one of her friends provided the diagnosis that had eluded the boy’s doctor. The discovery that Evan Owens suffers from reflex anoxic seizures, a rare but treatable disease, provided a happy ending and is just one example of the public health benefits of digital media, says a new perspective in the Journal of Public Health. Evan’s story, published in the UK’s Daily Mail, illustrates how people are turning to the Internet for healthcare advice and how important it is for healthcare professionals to participate in the discussion, the perspective’s lead author, Amelia Burke-Garcia, told Reuters Health. (The Daily Mail story is online here: http://dailym.ai/1eWaEl6.) “There’s always the risk of misinformation or false information floating around on these channels,” Burke-Garcia said.