Got a Medical Question for a Doctor?
Jan 16, 2009
By R. Holman
With the economy tanking for the past three months (and the prospects for a 2009 recovery looking dimmer every trading day), with last month’s unemployment figures the highest in sixteen years (and the prior month’s revision dramatically higher as well) and with the subsequent loss of employee health insurance coverage for the two-million plus Americans now unemployed, those that have family or friends with cancer, the word free might sound awfully good and valuable right now.
There is indeed a brand new and very free online Q&A service available to potentially allay some of those health-related fears and concerns through an organization called the Asian American Center for Cancer Education and Research (AACCER), http://www.aacceronline.org/, reaching out to the Asian-American communities in Quincy and throughout Boston.
As Betty Yau, AACCER co-founder, long-time marketing consultant, community activist and current Assistant to the Mayor of Quincy describes their new free service:
I think the free Q&A service is a great service to the community. It is good for people who would want to ask a question to a medical professional freely and anonymously, clarify a diagnosis, a medical condition, any medical myths or unanswered concerns after a doctor’s visit . . .
Joining Ms. Yau in the long-planned effort is former Boston-based, now-retired Cardio-Vascular Surgeon Dr. Stephen C. Lau, who also shares the belief with Ms. Yau that there is a strong need for this kind of service for the Asian-American communities.
Dr. Lau, a 1969 graduate of the Hong Kong University Faculty of Medicine and a resident of the United States since 1971, believes too many Asian-Americans face language and cultural obstacles and need a better understanding of their medical situations.
During Dr. Lau’s twelve years in Boston while affiliated with St. Elizabeth’s, observing what he believed were significant differences between the personal attention physicians were able to give their patients in the smaller, more localized hospitals versus the larger ones - - - he then likened those differences to what he and Ms. Yau were looking to accomplish with how personalized they expect their new Q&A service to be through AACCER.
The Q&A Message Board, according to Dr. Lau and Ms. Yau, is also unique to the genre of online medical help websites because it allows visitors to post their questions anonymously if they prefer - - - and to even write it in their native tongue, be it Mandarin or Cantonese - - - and Dr. Lau will respond in kind.
When asked why they didn’t post bilingual answers so Asian-Americans who may not be able to read original Chinese might still benefit from his answers, Dr. Lau, referring to his preference for actually writing in what he cleverly termed Chinglish, indicated that both he and Ms. Yau wanted to initially respect the preferred tongue of the visitors and that a bilingual site could be possible further down the road.
The all-volunteer service (Dr. Lau donates his time and expertise while Ms. Yau donates her marketing and coordination talents) is available twenty-four hours a day online and every time a new message is posted by a reader, Dr. Lau is contacted to provide his answers - - - or seek the opinion of another specialist. The patient could even be reached privately by email or telephone, Dr. Lau indicated, thereby underscoring their joint desire to truly personalize that which is usually and dramatically traumatic.
Once again, it’s the Asian American Center for Cancer Education and Research (AACCER) and its free Q&A service is available online at http://www.aacceronline.org/.
With the economy tanking for the past three months (and the prospects for a 2009 recovery looking dimmer every trading day), with last month’s unemployment figures the highest in sixteen years (and the prior month’s revision dramatically higher as well) and with the subsequent loss of employee health insurance coverage for the two-million plus Americans now unemployed, those that have family or friends with cancer, the word free might sound awfully good and valuable right now.
There is indeed a brand new and very free online Q&A service available to potentially allay some of those health-related fears and concerns through an organization called the Asian American Center for Cancer Education and Research (AACCER), http://www.aacceronline.org/, reaching out to the Asian-American communities in Quincy and throughout Boston.
As Betty Yau, AACCER co-founder, long-time marketing consultant, community activist and current Assistant to the Mayor of Quincy describes their new free service:
I think the free Q&A service is a great service to the community. It is good for people who would want to ask a question to a medical professional freely and anonymously, clarify a diagnosis, a medical condition, any medical myths or unanswered concerns after a doctor’s visit . . .
Joining Ms. Yau in the long-planned effort is former Boston-based, now-retired Cardio-Vascular Surgeon Dr. Stephen C. Lau, who also shares the belief with Ms. Yau that there is a strong need for this kind of service for the Asian-American communities.
Dr. Lau, a 1969 graduate of the Hong Kong University Faculty of Medicine and a resident of the United States since 1971, believes too many Asian-Americans face language and cultural obstacles and need a better understanding of their medical situations.
During Dr. Lau’s twelve years in Boston while affiliated with St. Elizabeth’s, observing what he believed were significant differences between the personal attention physicians were able to give their patients in the smaller, more localized hospitals versus the larger ones - - - he then likened those differences to what he and Ms. Yau were looking to accomplish with how personalized they expect their new Q&A service to be through AACCER.
The Q&A Message Board, according to Dr. Lau and Ms. Yau, is also unique to the genre of online medical help websites because it allows visitors to post their questions anonymously if they prefer - - - and to even write it in their native tongue, be it Mandarin or Cantonese - - - and Dr. Lau will respond in kind.
When asked why they didn’t post bilingual answers so Asian-Americans who may not be able to read original Chinese might still benefit from his answers, Dr. Lau, referring to his preference for actually writing in what he cleverly termed Chinglish, indicated that both he and Ms. Yau wanted to initially respect the preferred tongue of the visitors and that a bilingual site could be possible further down the road.
The all-volunteer service (Dr. Lau donates his time and expertise while Ms. Yau donates her marketing and coordination talents) is available twenty-four hours a day online and every time a new message is posted by a reader, Dr. Lau is contacted to provide his answers - - - or seek the opinion of another specialist. The patient could even be reached privately by email or telephone, Dr. Lau indicated, thereby underscoring their joint desire to truly personalize that which is usually and dramatically traumatic.
Once again, it’s the Asian American Center for Cancer Education and Research (AACCER) and its free Q&A service is available online at http://www.aacceronline.org/.
Article Reference: http://www.sampan.org/show_article.php?display=1756
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