INTERNET COULD HELP PEOPLE LIVE LONGER

The Internet may allow people to live longer, healthier lives.

Kathy O'Howell, a staff nurse at Southeast Missouri Hospital's Generations Center, helps people every day as they weave through the World Wide Web looking for everything from herbal medications to the latest Alzheimer's research.

"Particularly with people who have chronic illnesses, one of the biggest things for them is to educate themselves," O'Howell said. "The more educated a person is about their condition the better off they're going to be in the long run. I think that is what all this is about; to help make the patient more aware of what is going on in their system and managing it themselves and this is only going to help them."

O'Howell said the Internet has such a tremendous amount of available information it is sometimes intimidating to the novice. One way of accessing Internet information is by using a search engine. These programs search billions of Web sites in a matter of seconds to find files with words matching those within the search parameter.

The problem with search engines is the wording. Typing in the word "medical" by itself will generate 6 million sites. The word "health" produces 8 million sites. Even when the searcher uses specific words, the words sometimes have to be used in a certain combination or with abbreviations. Above all else, the complicated medical terms need to be spelled correctly.

"We've had people come in with names of herbs and herbal remedies and we've brought up all kinds of information about that," O'Howell said. "We can get information from all over the world off the Internet."

O'Howell said all three staff nurses in the Generations Center can access different information on the same subject through search engines by slight deviations in phrasing. The Generations staff has a set of favorite sites already established in the system. Called bookmarks, this way of saving favorite sites eliminates a series of steps to gathering the best information.

Among the hospital's bookmarked sites are the Arthritis Foundation, Cancer Information Network, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Teens in Trouble, The American Heart Association and the Alzheimer's Association.

Each of these sites offers the latest research, ways of getting more information and many of them offer surveys for self-diagnosis.

The American Heart Association's site, at http://www.amhrt.org, has a page that calculates a person's risk of heart disease based on 11 factors. To complete the survey, people must know their blood pressure and cholesterol readings.

That site also has information on nutrition, research and treatment.

Teens in Trouble, www.an.psu.edu/jkl1/teens, has information on substance abuse, suicide, criminal behavior, runaways, sexual issues, parenting, teen culture and eating, learning, and mental disorders. The site also offers a way for Internet users to communicate with each other.

O'Howell said these "chat rooms" were an unexpected benefit for Internet users with common ailments.

"People can get on there and talk to others that have the same type of disorders they do," she said. "They can come in and chat with others from a long way away, but who have the type of disorders."

The FDA's site, www.fda.gov/fdac/995_toc.html, has a wide range of information from medication to treating venomous bites. The November file of that site listed a status report on breast implant safety, guarding against glaucoma and treatment of disabling bladder conditions.

O'Howell said the Internet sites are not the only health benefit of computers. Recent software innovations have made monitoring diabetes more efficient. Also tracking personal medical histories can be done on computer, which allows for faster admittance into emergency rooms, she said.

"You can put in your entire medical history then print it out and keep it on file at the doctor's office," O'Howell said. "If you're someone who has a number of physical problems and you seem to be admitted to the hospital frequently, that's something you can give them instead of answering all those endless questions."

Charles Shepherd, vice president of interactive resources for the Arthritis Foundation, said that web site is visited an average of 120,000 times a week. That has grown steadily since January when the site was hit 18,000 times a week.

Shepherd said the site was formed by a volunteer group with the intention of disseminating information. He said it has accomplished that and more.

"I do track how many people access the site, how many brochures are ordered, membership requests through the site and various other things and all of those figures have steadily gone up," Shepherd said.

The Arthritis Foundation's site, www.arthritis.org, offers treatments for arthritis sufferers, information to health care professionals, research grant applications, consumer products and juvenile arthritis materials.

"We found that there were many people who were interested in getting arthritis information through the World Wide Web," he said. "We have found, since we established the site, that kind of evidence has been substantiated."