Click Here for News of the Latest Advance
With medicine changing so rapidly, finding the latest information on health conditions or treatments can be difficult and time-consuming. Because their news sources are similar, even the leading health-care sites may have the same reports. They also hesitate to include studies and developments that haven’t received mainstream acceptance.
But https://www.ivanhoe.com, the Web site for Ivanhoe Broadcast News, has only original health-related stories, many of them cutting edge. IBN is a television news organization that provides health news and “medical breakthrough” stories for more than 300 network television affiliates across the nation, including KABC-TV in Los Angeles.
Staff members have years of experience bringing carefully researched, original stories to the public. They cull and cross-check more than 150 medical journals and other research-based news sources monthly, and their 25 producers are based around the country, researching, interviewing and reporting on the stories they produce.
This expertise in ferreting out newsworthy medical developments shows. If the producers think a story is based on legitimate science, they’ll cover it even though it may not have been peer-reviewed or published in a medical journal.
The site’s owners and Web master say it’s not high-dollar sponsors that motivate them, but the consumer success stories, such as one that the site’s producers shared of a Pennsylvania man who was blind in one eye for 32 years but can now see because of a procedure described in an IBN story.
*
The 90-second “breakthrough” stories are why you’ll go to this site, and they are front and center, with text and video available. You get the story quickly in a few easy-to-understand paragraphs. It’s TV news on the Web; use it as a tip sheet.
There are also “features of the week,” on family and general health topics, and a question-and-answer interview with a top doctor. The featured stories change on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
Each month, the site lets you participate in a different health-related discussion, with comments from a leading expert; this month’s subject is addictions. You can also share your favorite health-care Web site or resource in this section.
Daily “news flashes” (five to eight health-care news summaries written from medical journals and other original news sources) are posted on the site, or subscribe to their archives ($50 a year) and you can receive the flashes by e-mail.
Searches can be done the traditional way or through 13 topics, including children’s health, fertility, arthritis, mental health, heart and sports medicine. Under each topic is a list of stories the site has produced on each subject. But be forewarned: You have to subscribe to the archives to access the full stories.
If you want to be sure not to miss a story of interest to you, then choose “Be the First to Know,” a weekly e-mail on the three medical breakthrough topics plus the three weekly features.
One caution: You’ll see more words like “miracles” and “breakthroughs” than you would find in the New England Journal of Medicine. But that’s because the site is essentially TV online, complete with attention-getting words. Just be sure, as always, to check the information with your doctor.
The Look: This site won’t knock your socks off with its graphics, wow you with high-tech features or provide you with the most in-depth resources. But the look is clean and professional, and the layout is simple. Because the company is broadcast-based, you often get colorful pictures and video as well.
Getting Around: If some of the larger health-care sites intimidate you, you’ll welcome the smaller range of choices--and more direct paths--on this site. I did run into some bad links, but they’ve since been corrected.
Ads and Sponsors: Banner ads and sponsorship of e-mail messages are available, although there have been few takers. The ads and sponsors are clearly identified and not overly intrusive.
In the Works: The site is adding an “e-mail a friend” feature, and a personalized weekly e-mail to alert you to topics of your choice. And I was glad to hear background information on the company’s leaders will be added, so it will be easier for visitors to judge credibility.
Who’s Behind It: Bette Bonfleur, former producer at the ABC affiliate in Orlando, Fla., owns IBN along with Marjorie Bekhaert Thomas, who serves as president. Their executive producer has a broadcast journalism background, and their producers hail from various major networks. No one has a medical degree, so when a story is questionable or a procedure unclear, the producers garner advice from their contacts, a cadre of physicians from leading institutions. They find this fits their style better than a typical health site’s medical advisory board.
Like many people, at times I have found the health-care industry’s complexity and rapid pace of change to be intimidating. It’s comforting to know that IBN is working to find health care and medical developments about which we may not have otherwise known.
*
Marla Bolotsky is managing editor and director of online information for the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. She can be reached by e-mail at marla.bolotsky@latimes.com.
* Your Health Online runs every other Monday in Health.
