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Ethics Group Says Tighter Rules Needed for Online Medical Sites

Online tools and services that promote personalized health care need to have tighter government regulation to ensure that they do not mislead or misinform consumers, British medical ethics researchers say in a report issued on Tuesday by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, Reuters reports (Kelland, Reuters, 10/12).

 Such tools and services include:

  • Health information resources; and
  • Vendors of private screening kits and other medical products.

For the report, researchers examined:

  • How individuals can make sure that the information they find online is accurate and unbiased;
  • The sale of medications and other health care products online;
  • Tools for creating personal health records, such as Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault;
  • The use of telemedicine; and
  • Body imaging and genetic profiling test services (Press Association/Google News, 10/11).

Report’s Findings

The researchers note that some websites should raise a red flag particularly when they do not indicate who provided the information and what the purpose of sharing the information might be.

They also write that some private DNA tests, which are marketed with the promise of predicting the user’s risks of developing certain diseases, can be “medically or therapeutically meaningless” and could provide results that are “unclear, unreliable or inaccurate” (Moss, Scotsman, 10/12).

In addition, the researchers note that some private, direct-to-consumer CT or MRI scans are falsely marketed as a form of a “health checkup” to individuals who do not have symptoms for any conditions.

As a result, the readings might be difficult to interpret and suggest “abnormalities” that actually are harmless, which might prompt some people to seek unnecessary treatments or other procedures, Reuters reports (Reuters, 10/12).

 Recommendations

The report urges government regulators to assume a larger role in monitoring the sale of scans, tests and drugs that are marketed directly to consumers.

 It also recommends that firms provide additional information to consumers on:

  • How an “excess risk” of a disease relates to the general population; and
  • Giving personal information to companies (Press Association/Google News, 10/11).

Source: iHealthBeat

 

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