Tom Ferguson

Patients are using the Internet as a way to play a larger role in their own health care, Tom Ferguson asserts in the following viewpoint. Ferguson contends that patients are relying on online self-help communities, rather than doctors, to provide information on their ailments and offer moral support. According to Ferguson, these online resources make patients feel unique and valued, validation they rarely receive from physicians. Ferguson is the editor and publisher of the online health newsletter Ferguson Report and an adjunct associate professor of health informatics at the University of Texas Medical Sciences Center in Houston.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. What do “self-helpers” consider to be the most useful online resource, according to Ferguson?
2. What does the author conclude is the primary desire of online “self-helpers”?
3. According...