Well the core conclusion by Dave is
No smart patient will unthinkingly trust a patient community (nor a physician), online or off. We all need to wise up and be smart consumers. And based on Smith’s writing, I assert that no smart physician or consumer will unthinkingly trust evidence from medical journals.
Exactly. The community itself doesn’t do anything good. It is always the patient. In fact for Patients like e-Patient Dave or Bill Claxton it is information and education they receive by joining a community or the whole processs they perform within the community. Without any scientifically proven evidence i’d say a community supports a learning process by giving opportunities to learn and teach. There is evidence that people confess easier in online self-help contexts. But in general the whole process within communities and its effects needs still to be investigated. I’d say the possibility to learn and teach inside an online community together with lower thresholds for self representation compared to face-to-face situation bear tremendous oportunities for the wealth of a patient. There are risks, of course, but this is nothing special to online communities. This is why the notion of a treatment helps to change the picture of the online communities as well as the way how to approach it scientifically.
