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Update - May 2006: Hope Waltman has recently joined OBGYN.net as the moderator of our new OBGYN.net Fibroid Resource Center and Discussion forum. Just click here and read this month's featured articles then join the discussion at The Fibroid Resource Center Discussion Forum.
OBGYN.net: How are you better serving the Ob/Gyn and Women's Health community with Internet Technology?
Hope For Fibroids: For the Ob/Gyn, Interventional Radiologist, and
patients, we are demonstrating the importance of working together as
partners in making medical decisions. Today doctors don’t have the luxury of
spending a lot of time talking to their patients about medical alternatives
and procedures.
On Hope For Fibroids Organization web site we try to cover information the
patient can research and take with her to the doctor consultation. The
information is used in two ways:
- The patient feels less stressed out because they have knowledge about their medical situation and can create a list of questions to ask the doctor.
- The communication between doctor(s) and the patient can be more of a partnership. Stemming from this partnership is the ability for the patient to make the best decision for her medical situation.
OBGYN.net: Why did you get involved in
the Internet?
Hope For Fibroids: Our small Organization was formed by people who
had experienced a medical illness that caused them to have to research for a
solution to their situation. We all realized that along with the information on
the Internet we could use the Internet as an avenue to communicate and support
others who needed our help. Each of us had a need to tell our story and share
the information we had researched/found to help other women who were not as well
versed in computer technology and were scared when it came to researching the
Internet.
We realized early on too many women were suffering pain for years and were never
told about new treatments that may have corrected the problem. Women sometimes
hold back talking to each other about personal medical problems, and the
Organization is trying to help open up the door of communication between women
as well as with the doctors.
To create the Organization we knew we needed professional guidance to help us
insure all our information was correct. The professionals in our Organization
realized from their own experiences that the Internet is a magnificent
educational tool to help women and their families.
From this desire to help women, families, and doctors, the Organization was
created and the Internet was the best tool to broadcast the information out to
the world. The Internet and E-mail are two tools that helped us to be able to
work with people we would never have known about had we not seen information on
the Internet about them. Many of our Organization members we have not met in
person, but that has not stopped us from being able to create our web site and
Organization.
OBGYN.net: How long have you been using
the Internet?
Hope For Fibroids: The Organization has been using the Internet for
several years.
OBGYN.net: What has been your greatest
reward in using the Internet?
Hope For Fibroids: The following are just “some” of the rewards in
using the Internet:
- The feedback from women and their families telling us how useful our information has been to them. The medical information gives women ‘hope’ for a solution to their medical situations.
- Women, who were afraid to see their Ob/Gyn’s, found courage to set-up medical consultations. Thanks to the information they obtained from our web site they went for the recommended tests. The tests helped diagnose early precancerous cells in their uterus. The women were able to have surgery performed and they didn’t have to go through radiation treatment.
- The many doctors who come to our web site and volunteer/contribute information so women and their families can be helped has been tremendous. I often hear women and their family members say, “It gives us back faith in our doctors when you see so many willing to volunteer their services/knowledge for free to help others.”
OBGYN.net: What is the future of the
Ob/Gyn community on the internet – what do you believe is possible.
Hope For Fibroids:
- A future trend of patients and doctors communicating via the use of the Internet and e-mail services.
- More Internet medical controls being put on the type of medical information that is put on the Internet so women will know they are getting correct information.
- Doctors relaying more information to the patients by using an Internet web site, and slowly moving away from using the conventional medical brochures.
- Doctors using the Internet to continue their medical education and comparing notes on new medical procedures.
- Comparing medical information will be a valuable asset for patients because it will speed up the advancement of a medical treatment and/or prescription medication.
- Students using the Internet for their college courses. The medical information that Ob/Gyn and Interventional Radiologist can share is growing rapidly on the Internet.
- Women are starting to use the Internet to study Ob/Gyn medical articles, studies, and reports.
- The possibilities are endless for using the Internet to provide better
information for patients and professionals to get the information out there.
For more information, contact the Hope for Fibroids website [http://www.hopeforfibroids.org/]
