This article was published on March 2, 2010

You’ve got questions? They’ve got (medical) answers!


You’ve got questions? They’ve got (medical) answers!

ask_your_doctor_t_shirt-p235206683138430922s7i4_400I recently did a post about Question & Answer search engines, so when I saw a post at MakeUseOf.com about medical questions and answers, I decided to give them a go.

The first one I tried is called MedHelp. I couldn’t help but notice that they have human and animal / pet experts, so I registered and asked a question in their pet forum: Are wolf hybrids safe pets? What are the Pros as well of the Cons of owning a wolf hybrid? It’s a loaded question because I already own two wolf hybrids (out of a total of six) and I know first hand how exceedingly wonderful they are as companion animals.

I immediately got a confirmation email, and when I get an answer from them I’ll update this post. The next two are Ask Medical Doctor and MDAdvice. Read on past the break to see how they performed.

For Ask Medical Doctor I asked this question: What are the Pros as well as the Cons of drinking large (4-6 cups) amounts of regular coffee in the morning to “get going?” They also sent a confirmation email, but while it is a “free” service, I thought this message was a little bit strange:

“Due to the sheer volume of questions we receive, it may take more than five business days to answer your question. If you want a quick response to your question, please make a donation, and it will be answered within 10 hours (and often within an hour).” They suggest $9 for a regular donation, and $15+ for a premium one. So if I post the answer to my coffee question in five days, this post may be long buried.

Finally I went to MDAdvisor, where they have this notice: “We are only able to select a few questions to answer each week, although many more are submitted. We cannot personally answer every question.” So I didn’t bother, would you?

These are not the only places that you can go to for free answers to medical questions. As I said at the outset, it was another post that gave me these three names. Is there another site that you know of?

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