SEW reports on a Yahoo! study:

“New research from Yahoo tells us that the majority of people who searched for health information subsequently visited their doctor (61%) and that 71% of these folks went equipped with pointed, action oriented questions. Searchers also use twice as many resources to learn about health issues than the average consumer.“

Hmmm….

A good friend of mine, who is a doctor, tends to roll her eyes when I talk about medical advice on the internet . In her experience, people are more likely to look something up, become convinced that they have a terminal disease, and then it turns out to be a cold!

It would be interesting to see a study showing the % of searchers who possibly suffer from hypochondria…

Still, good news for doctors, search engines and pharma advertisers:

“Searchers are 130% more likely to have seen an online display ad and view it as informational”