The New Patient Power

摘要

Austin maxwell, I3, and his mother, Janet, 45, of Modesto, Calif., rarely go to doctors anymore. "I don't need them," she says. Maxwell prefers the Internet. "I use that instead of the doctor because [Web sites] have the most up-to-date information," she says. Twelve years ago Maxwell did what no doctor could do for her: she figured out what was wrong with baby Austin. He suffered mightily from stomach distress; he was "ill, thin, really cranky," his mother says. Her doctor offered theories—an allergy to detergent, a reaction to breast milk. "It seemed like everything I brought up, he had a pat answer for," Maxwell recalls.