Tips for Online Shoppers - Medicine
Reproduced from New Zealand Herald
Buying medicine online is a lot like responding to a telemarketing or mail
order promotion, and many of the same rules apply - with a few extra concerns.
The US Government has a series of publications to help with online purchases
(www.pueblo.gsa.gov)
- Make sure the company is real, and reputable. Check that it has a
physical address and a contact phone number. If it's foreign, check
with local business authorities.
- Don't give personal details, such as your medical history, without
being certain the company will respect your privacy. Don't give away any
information that's not required and make sure you understand why required
information is being collected.
- Make certain your purchase happens over a secure connection if you buy by
credit card online You'll see the web address in your browser bar
change from HTTP to HTTPS, and in most recent browsers your computer will
verify by pop-up that you are entering a secure connection.
- Read the refund policy. If there isn't one, don't buy.
- Read the privacy policy. If there isn't one, don't buy.
- Keep a copy of your order form. If you can't print it out, use
your computer's "Print Screen" key to take a screenshot of the
transaction and save it as an image file.
- If the claim sounds too good to be true, it is. Do a web search for
background on any experimental drug you're thinking about using. Be
especially cautious with "natural" remedies that have not been tested
or approved by Government agencies.
- Check with Customs to make certain you'll be able to collect your
purchase if ordering from overseas and ask what extra charges will accrue (such
as GST).
- Go behind the brand name and get a list of all the ingredients in any new
pharmaceutical. Make certain you understand what each ingredient does and what
side-effects you may experience.
- Check with your doctor.
CONSULTING OVERSEAS MEDICS
Pharmacies are one thing, but getting medical information online is such a big
business that the cream of the international crop of websites offer very
reliable, very detailed information. Here are a few from the top tier:
The US National Library of Medicine provides free access to
MEDLINE (Medical Literature, Analysis, and Retrieval System Online), a
bibliographic index to 4600 medical journals in 30 languages that adds 2000
references a day. Spot purchases of complete articles is possible online
and the site also offers many other resources - www.nlm.nih.gov.
AllSearchEngines.com offers an extensive index of medical
search engines and medicine-focused websites with well-developed internal
search capabilities.
KidsDoctor.com provides a massive inventory of plain-language
information about children's medicine in a searchable database by category
of complaint or anatomy.
HealthAtoZ.com is a family medicine portal with extensive
resources and some nifty tools for managing problems such as asthma. The
website also provides good background on "wellness" - as in, staying
healthy.
MedicineNet.com is another exhaustive website that breaks
information down by diseases and conditions, procedures and tests, medications,
and medical terminology.
Emory University's MedWeb.com serves both practitioners
and consumers and is one of the most frequently cited online sources of medical
information.
WebMD.com is perhaps the largest consumer-focused online
resource in the world and offers extensive resources for practitioners as
well. Information can be found by direct search, or by browsing through
its 25 medical specialty areas.
Most of these websites - and many other top-tier
productions - make a point of subscribing to the eight principles of good
practice published by the UN's Health on the Net Foundation - www.hon.ch - itself a terrific starting point with huge
databases of its own.
Send this page to a friend