Andrew Schorr, a specialist in health communications, is convinced that the Internet saved his life. Now, through a book he wrote with Mary Adam Thomas, “The Web-Savvy Patient,” he is trying to help others facing a medical crisis use the Internet to their advantage and avoid its potential pitfalls.
n 1996, at age 45, with two young children and hoping for a third, Mr. Schorr had his life turned upside down by a diagnosis of chronic lymphocytic leukemia, an incurable disease. Cancer doctors in Seattle, near his home in Mercer Island, Wash., told him he needed immediate chemotherapy.
But before he took their advice, he went on the Web and found a community of patients with his disease……..