A Link to the Experts

As health care Web sites proliferate, they increasingly seem to fall into similar molds. There are sites sponsored by individuals with unknown credentials, sites sponsored by major medical institutions, and commercial health care sites with the requisite features. On these, you’ll find the standard daily health news, conditions A to Z, prescription drug checkers, stories on women’s health, men’s health, children’s health and seniors’ health, plus community sections, healthy recipes and so on.

Now, don’t get me wrong; I love the Internet, respect these sites and appreciate their usefulness. But now I’m looking for those that break away from the pack, sites that offer something unique while still providing timely, credible and unbiased health information.

HealthTalk Interactive (https://www.healthtalk.com or https://www.healthtalkinteractive.com) is just that. This site seeks out medical experts to participate in live interactive discussions, quickly, efficiently and inexpensively bringing consumers the most current information on chronic diseases and other conditions.

These Webcasts, involving patients, doctors and other interested parties, are the cornerstone of the site and have a “we’re in this together” feeling. There’s usually more than one medical specialist on each Webcast, and you can e-mail questions ahead of time, which helps the producers format the show. It’s simple to participate. If you don’t have RealPlayer software, just download it from the site. Your ZIP Code is the only requirement to listen.

HealthTalk also gives you in-depth content, but only on 11 topics (no A-to-Z format here), including multiple sclerosis, menopause, kidney disease, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, hepatitis C and asthma. The topics are selected based on available sponsors and the conditions’ impact on society. Cancer, for instance, was selected because it affects so many people; the rheumatoid arthritis information is funded by the Arthritis Foundation and the drug company Immunex.

The Webcasts are on these same topics, so even with one to four Webcasts a month, this site is definitely not for everyone. But if you or someone close to you is affected by one of these conditions, then this just may be the place for you.

The Look: HealthTalk is straightforward and simply designed, and it’s easy to find what you’re looking for.

Getting Around: The site is organized according to “patient education networks,” one for each condition. If you’re looking for content on a particular topic, just click on that “network” to find information and resources (including the section’s sponsoring organization). You can also find related features, such as essays by individuals, and you can search the whole site or just one section.

What You Get: Each of the topic sections is arranged a bit differently, but they all provide similar resources. In addition to the live Webcasts, you’ll find Webcast transcripts, audio archives of previous shows and diagnosis and treatment information for each condition.

“Pathfinders” within each network offer personal stories by real people who are dealing with each condition. In “celebrity pathfinders,” actor Alan Thicke talks about dealing with a diabetic child, actress Angie Dickinson speaks about her sister’s struggle with Alzheimer’s disease and Olympic athlete Jackie Joyner-Kersee tells of her battle with asthma.

Ads and Sponsors: Advertising on this site doesn’t mean ads encouraging you to click to go to other sites. The sponsorship is far more subtle. The site makes money mostly from unrestricted educational grants from pharmaceutical companies.

The site’s owners say there’s a firewall between sponsors and content and that HealthTalk Interactive does all of its own original research on the topics. Further, the grants prohibit the sponsors from selecting the experts or influencing the content of the discussions. A pharmaceutical company that makes a drug for multiple sclerosis sponsors that section, but so does the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, a nonprofit association.

Although the sponsors don’t tell the doctors on the Webcasts what to say, you should keep such affiliations in mind and check the objectivity of the information with your doctor. Your doctor is ultimately the one who will recommend treatments and prescriptions, so this should be just another site to help you gather nuggets of information.

In the Works: Plans are underway to add diabetes and Crohn’s disease to the topics covered. The site may also launch an osteoarthritis section. And it soon expects to add a short questionnaire about your condition (do you have a chronic condition, or does someone close to you have a condition? Are you newly diagnosed?) to provide tips on how to best navigate the site.

Who’s Behind It: Andrew Schorr is the site’s founder and publisher. His interest and expertise in patient education evolved from his background as a radio and TV producer.

After starting “health talk shows” over the phone, he added the Web site three years ago, and it has now outgrown its predecessor. And now that Schorr is a cancer patient himself, with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, he says he’s even more committed to helping people live with long-term illness and still be able to enjoy their favorite activities. (There’s a link to Schorr and his staff on the site, complete with e-mail, address, phone and fax information.)

The site has turned a profit, and some of its content has been featured on the more widely known Drkoop.com (https://www.drkoop.com). Schorr attributes much of HealthTalk’s success to establishing forums in which patients feel part of a community.

HealthTalk Interactive says it wants people to have access to the great minds in given fields, saying the experts’ enthusiasm helps empower people to better manage their condition.

And sometimes it just helps to talk.

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Marla Bolotsky is managing editor and director of online information for the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. She can be reached at [email protected]. Your Health Online runs every other Monday.