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PEDIATRICS Vol. 109 No. 3 March 2002, pp. 522-523

EXPERIENCE AND REASON

Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right: Harm Aggravated by Inaccurate Information on the Internet

There has been much concern expressed in the literature about the use of medical information on the Internet by patients and families. Although much work has been done to quantify the misinformation available on the Internet, there have not been reports of actual harm to children resulting from this misinformation. We present the case of a 1-year-old boy whose clinical course of diarrhea was complicated not only by inaccurate advice given by the emergency room physician, but also by the same advice received from the Internet.

Anthony George Crocco, MD

Postgraduate Medical Education
McGill University
Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3G 1Y6

Miguel Villasis-Keever, MD, MSc

Health Information Research Unit (HIRU), Faculty of Health Sciences
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8N 3Z5
Clinical Epidemiology Unit at Pediatric Hospital
Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS)
Mexico City, Mexico CP 6698

Alejandro R. Jadad, MD, DPhil, FRCPC

Centre for Global eHealth Innovation
Rose Family Chair in Supportive Care
Departments of Anesthesiology and Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation
University Health Network and University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5G 2C4

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Key Words: Internet • child • case report • medical errors • harm

Abbreviations: ER, emergency room

Received for publication May 23, 2001; Accepted Sep 10, 2001.




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