I had developed a funky rash and, as usual, was obsessing over the fact that it might be something horrible, incurable.

I finally made an appointment with the dermatologist and was diagnosed with nummular eczema (a coin shaped skin inflammation). Nothing fatal. Whew!

When my dermatologist asked me if I wanted any information about my condition, I declined, telling him I had a Merck Manuel of Diagnosis and Therapy. I also would research it on the internet.

He recommended that I visit webmd.com for information on my condition so as soon as I got home I logged on.

I was pleasantly surprised to find a well organized and comprehensive web site and I was easily able to search and find information concerning my problem.

After reading a few articles, I decided to check out the rest of this web site and I was impressed with the content.

They have a comprehensive MYHealthRecord where you can store your health information online. It's confidential and stored on a separate, secure server.

You can create a member profile where you can link to the health topics that interest you and subscribe to newsletters of your choice.

There is also a health risk appraisal questionnaire that will help you understand any potential health risks you may face. Unfortunately, I ran into a few bugs with this one -it prompted me to answer how long I had given up smoking (even after answering previously that I did't smoke). When I finally put in a false answer just to go ahead with the survey, it kept on giving me an error message so I ended up giving up in disgust .

They also appear have lots of information for parents and pregnant women such as Health-o-Meters and Immunization records but I did not check these out since I have no need for these.

Overall, I was extremely impressed with my first visit to WebMD and this is a web site I will be visiting frequently whenever I have medical questions that need answering.


Recommended: Yes