If you asked someone fifteen or twenty years ago where they found their health news, the answer might have been “TV,” “a magazine”, or “my doctor”. Now as patients, we are more connected to one another, and directly to the news thanks to the Internet. A dozen or so keystrokes and a few clicks can get you not just to more information about your health, but the original source (if it’s not behind a pay-wall database system, anyways!)

Staying on top of your health is not easy but it’s important—staying on top of health news even more so. It’s important to stay up to date so that you can, if you choose, take that information to your physician and ask if there may be better options for your medical condition, or feel more empowered to ask for a second opinion—which is always your right. How do you keep up with news that seems to be flying at you full force? Here three of the ways I stay on top of health news:

• Follow Twitter accounts relevant to your medical condition(s). Charities, research professionals, doctors, and other organizations can be helpful. For instance, with asthma I follow charities from around the world helping people with asthma, Respiratory Therapy certification programs, respiratory and sleep medicine organizations (respiratory, critical care, and sleep medicine are often linked!), education programs, researchers, and pulmonary medicine journals. And of course, I follow lots of other patients—with my conditions and others!—to stay up to date, too.
• Subscribe to Google Alerts. Google Alerts are great as they put content you care about into a digest, right in your inbox. I get daily alerts about asthma and ADHD, and updates about the sport of Goalball whenever it pops up, right into my inbox at 2 AM Central each day.
• Follow blogs.Scientific and charitable organizations, patients, and hospitals and clinics often have blogs to keep their supporters, clients and audiences in general up to date on what’s going on in research—and, it’s often written in a more digestible form than a journal article!

Staying on top of medical news can be an important choice to make you healthier. Another thing to keep updated? Your medical ID jewelry! Just as if you are not following the news you will not have the information you need to make an informed decision, the people caring for you in an emergency need up to date information from your medical ID tag, bracelet or necklace, to consider how their strategy of treatment may change based on that knowledge! Flip your bracelet or necklace over and take a quick read—is your information engraved still the most important? If not, it’s time to upgrade! If you already have a My Identity Doctor ID product, remember that our ID plate update program can provide a discount to past customers needing a new bracelet ID plate! If you haven’t shopped with us before, take a look—and remember, when your information change, we’re here to help you keep those around you up to date!