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by tomwalker
4281 days ago
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Congratulations on the launch. I am not sure if some of the drug types are appropriate though. Antibiotics for example.
If someone was prescribed an antibiotic for an infection, read your site and decided to stop taking it after a few days to avoid a side effect while waiting for an appointment with their doctor to find a suitable replacement, then it may increase resistance. Worse, they might stop the treatment and not bother finding any alternative if they feel "better enough". I agree that discussions on medications are good for the majority of cases but antibiotics should be considered firmly in the domain of the specialists who "should" take into account local resistance rates, etc. |
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As you know, many people already stop taking their antibiotics without finishing the full course. According to our internal research, people get most freaked out about side effects when they didn't expect them or didn't know they might happen, and when they didn't know it was a common or normal response to a medication. It's our hypothesis that surfacing this data (much of which does already exist online) will actually help with what clinicians refer to as "anticipatory guidance" -- helping people know what to expect -- and that this could reassure people when they do have a side effect, and help them realize that it's temporary. Good anticipatory guidance doesn't always happen in the exam room due to time constraints, etc. In a couple studies we cited in an Iodine blog post recently, docs spend an average of 12 seconds talking with patients about side effects of a new med, and 50% of these new med convos don't mention expected side effects at all. http://www.iodine.com/blog/11-questions-to-ask-about-medicat....
Additionally, our content will develop with more info about how to take a med, including this really important caveat about antibiotics. Another one I can think of is acetaminophen and its really important risk/warning about liver failure.
We still have a lot of work to do at Iodine, but we think we've got a good start. And overall, we think that more transparency is better, even when it comes to antibiotics, to help people have more informed conversations with their doctors about this stuff.