6 Effective Ways to Validate Medical Blogs
With the constant challenges that everyone faces, it is necessary to prioritize health, especially during the pandemic. While people limit their travels to keep their family members safe, staying healthy and knowledgeable about your welfare is essential. There are many ways to learn about staying healthy, and one of them is by utilizing the Internet.
Usually, you can easily find a medical blog, an online platform that provides different medical information that any person will find helpful. Whether it is for your health or another person, you can never go wrong with reading blogs about everything medical-related because they might even save your life at some point.
An article issued by the National Institute of Aging in 2018 stated that online health information availability is becoming a trend. Medical blogs can help provide health information to anyone who needs it as quickly as possible. People can also gain information through social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, which are commonly used by health professionals nowadays.
However, not all information is scientifically sound. Some individuals still try to provide false information to people that could potentially deteriorate their health even more, and that should never happen. Fortunately, this article will help you find several ways to determine whether the information you read online is accurate.
6 Effective Ways to Validate Medical Blogs
Check the Sponsors of the Website
By confirming the URL, people can immediately recognize if a medical blog is professionally funded and published. Websites ending with “.gov” are used by government agencies; “.edu” by educational institutions, while “.org” is usually used by non-profit organizations; “.com” is often used by hospitals and pharmaceutical companies.
Check the Authors
Sometimes, medical blogs do not contain the author’s details. Instead, the institution or hospital’s address and contact numbers are written at the end of the website. People can quickly contact them using the provided number.
Check When the Article Was Published
Readers should keep themselves updated. Recent medical studies are usually more credible than outdated ones. The authors usually place the date below the blog title.
Check the Purpose of the Website
Medical blogs technically provide relief and solutions to people with medical concerns. An influential medical blog encourages readers to solve medical problems practically. Also, you should know that some websites are intended to sell products, and as a reader, you have to see the difference.
Check if There Are Medical Apps Available
One platform on which you can contact a medical professional is through a mobile phone application. If a governing institution has no app, you can still talk with them by using the chat box that appears on your smartphone or your computer screen’s lower right corner when you visit their website. You can also ask questions through their customer service hotline.
Check Your Schedule and Set an Appointment
Reading medical blogs allows you to talk with a health professional via an online consultation. Once your medical background results appear to be an immediate concern, your doctors will examine everything further.
With constant technological advancements, people usually rely on the information provided through the Internet. It is important to double- or triple-check if a website or a medical blog is fully credible and provides helpful and truthful guides for your medical concerns.
