Health websites offer a variety of information, including e-books, videos and personalized answers to your health questions.
In today’s society, living conditions have improved dramatically compared to just a few generations back. But despite this progress, health problems have remained a top concern.
Good information on health issues and medical treatments are still hard to come by. Doctors are often too busy to explain their diagnoses in detail, and when information is available, it can be complex and full of jargon.
But in these tech-savvy times, there are a number of Web sites that patients in Indonesia can use to gain a better understanding of their health issues.
While no substitute for a real doctor, online research can help fill in the gaps, or even just satisfy one’s curiosity.
This Web site provides articles and videos on a range of health issues, as well as offering online consultations with 22 volunteer doctors from Jakarta, Kediri, Riau and other provinces in Indonesia.
Dr. Eko Mudi Putranto, who runs the site, said they receive about 10 e-mails each day and that people generally receive replies from them within seven days.
“Most Indonesians lack understanding about their health,” Dr. Eko said in a telephone interview, explaining his motivation for establishing the site.
Dr. Eko, a general practitioner at Gambiran Hospital in Kediri, East Java, began the site nearly five years ago with his son, Wijaya Mudi, who acts as webmaster.
“We aim to help Indonesians, as well as medical practitioners,” Wijaya said.
For students, the site provides 26 downloadable medical e-books, including “The British Journal of Surgery” (2009) and “The Atlas Human Skeletal Anatomy” (2007).
Aspiring surgeons can also watch the surgery videos on the site, including an open-heart interactive surgery simulation.
The site also contains a Body Mass Index calculator and women’s fertility calendar that calculates the likelihood of conception.
Each day the site receives 800 to 1,000 visits.
“I hope that with this Web site Indonesians can gain a better understanding of their health,” Dr. Eko said.
The design of this Web site is simple, with the anatomy of a human torso displayed in the center and a list of health categories on the left.
Created in April 2008 by Winarta Hindaya, a retired entrepreneur with no medical background, it was designed with ease of use in mind.
“I was inspired [to create the site] when my mom was hospitalized with a lung infection,” Winarta said.
His mother received medicines and injections at the hospital, but her treatments were costly, painful and seemed to only make her sicker.
“Luckily, I read in a newspaper that some lung medicines can actually attack the body’s auto immune system,” Winarta said.
He then spoke to the doctors about the article and they stopped the medication. Gradually, his mom recovered. “Since then, I have become very interested in health-related matters,” Winarta said.
He said he started buying medical books and perusing health-related Web sites. “But, most of the information was in English.”
So for his site, he summarized the materials he read and translated them into easy-to-understand Bahasa Indonesia.
Today, his Web site provides information on 28 health problem categories, including the auto immune system, viral, bacterial and parasitical infections and women’s health.
Each category contains a list of specific diseases detailing the definitions, causes, diagnosis, treatments and side effects of treatments.
In addition, Winarta lists a number of medications and health procedures — including vaccines, tests and injections — explaining what they are and what they can do to the body. A new article is uploaded onto the site every two or three days.
There is no consultation service or forum within the Web site.
“All information provided in the Web site is for your general knowledge,” he said.
“For a correct diagnosis, you should consult your doctor. But, by reading the information on the Web site, you can better prepare yourself before seeing a doctor and, later, better understand his diagnosis,” he added.
This Web site was developed by Dr. Boyke Dian Nugraha, a famous sexologist in Indonesia, in 2001. Accordingly, the articles on the Web site mainly concern the reproductive organs, pregnancy, sex and intimacy.
“There are about three to five article updates per month,” said Deddy Junaedi, the site’s webmaster. The site has a Q&A section so that “people who can’t meet Dr. Boyke in person can consult him about their health problems via e-mail,” Deddy said.
There is also a forum where the site’s 19,347 members can chat and interact, along with self-diagnosis applications to determine a woman’s fertility period and approximate day of giving birth, and a Body Mass Index (BMI) calculator.
About 300 people visit the site each day.
The Web site also gives detailed information about Dr. Boyke’s clinics and spa, as well as contact details for doctors, clinics, pharmacies, laboratories and hospitals in Java, Bali, Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Nusa Tenggara.
This Web site offers detailed information about more than 11,000 medicines, including their classifications, ingredients, dosages and prices.
“Few doctors and pharmacists in Indonesia are willing to explain medicines to their patients,” said Nasandi, the Web site’s moderator.
“Hopefully with our site, Indonesian patients can become better informed.”
The Web site is currently managed by PT Clinisindo, a company that also operates an online pharmacy at www.Apotik.medicastore.com.
The site also provides detailed information about more than 1,400 diseases and contains up-to-date information about developments in health care.
Visitors can login to leave their comments on articles.
On the site, they can also find the contact details for more than 6,100 specialist doctors in the country.
A search engine enables you to locate doctors by location, expertise and name.
“We don’t offer online consultations, but there are forums where our members can interact and discuss their health,” Nasandi said.
“We hope to connect doctors, patients and pharmacists.”
The Web site, which has been around since 2001, has over 6,000 members to date.
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