It's the LAST DAY to donate and pick up any of our thank-you gifts at a discount. 🔥 Give Now!
Makin' Money

The too informed patient in the age of WebMD

Gregory Warner Nov 19, 2010


Video Produced by Gregory Warner and Mara Zepeda. Created by Sebastienne Mundheim of White Box Theatre, acted by Charles DelMarcelle and Doug Greene, and voiced by two actors from Philadelphia’s Pig Iron Theatre Company

Health care consumers have access to an increasing stream of health news on television and radio, and a bottomless well of information online. There are over 3,000 iPhone apps having to do with health from an iPhone stethoscope to tools for managing your medical history or finding the right meds for your ailments.

All of this access to health care information has changed how we think about our symptoms and how we think about medicine. Has this also changed how we deal with our doctor? To illustrate this point, we invited two puppets (voiced by two actors from Philadelphia’s Pig Iron Theatre Company) into the studio for a skit we call “The too informed patient.”

For more on this topic, visit Marketplace Money’s Consumer’s Guide to Health Care, produced in association with a special episode of Marketplace Money that airs this weekend from Philadelphia, the birthplace of modern health care.

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.