patient comments faqs article

Patient Comments FAQs

What are Patient Comments?
Patient Comments are a collection of comments submitted by viewers in response to a question posed by a MedicineNet doctor or the editorial team. The question may vary from topic to topic and is meant to create a discussion related to the topic. Our goal is to incorporate what patients know by providing readers with valuable knowledge based on the experiences of people familiar with the topic.

Where can I find Patient Comments?
Patient Comments are connected to topics. A link to a specific Patient Discussion can be found at the bottom of some of the Diseases and Conditions and Procedures and Tests articles (not all articles have questions). This link is in a question box below the featured question.

To view the collection of questions and answers, please visit the Patient Comments A-Z List.

Do I need to sign up to participate?
No, you do not need to sign up to participate. Since all comments are anonymous, we do not require an email address, registration, login, or any other information for you to participate.

How do I submit my comment to be part of the discussion?
In the question box, there is a "Submit Your Comment" button. Clicking on this button takes you to a submission form page. On this form, you can enter your comment. You'll then need to check the agreement check box and finally the Submit Your Comment button. You will see a Thank You confirmation page after your comment has been submitted.

Will my comment be immediately published?
No, your comment will not be published immediately. It will first go through an editorial review process, and if it's accepted, it will be published within a few days.

Are all comments published?
No, not all comments submitted are published. During the review process, our editors will select the comments that best address the question and provide an educational benefit to others.

Please keep these guidelines in mind when writing your comments:

  • Please make sure you address the question asked.
  • Due to the overwhelming number of comments received, not all comments will be published.
  • When selecting comments to publish, our staff will choose those that are educational and complement the topic. Please try to stay on topic.
  • We do not provide medical or health-care advice, treatment, or diagnosis.
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How will I know if my comment has been published?
We will not notify you if your comment has been published. We suggest that you check back on the topic article regularly.

I see that my comment was published, but it was edited. Why?
Your comment may be edited. We would typically edit comments to make them clearer and more readable. We will remove personal information such as last names, email and web addresses, and other potentially harmful information.

Can I reply to someone else's comment?
We recommend that you not reply to someone else's comment. The Patient Discussion area is not meant to be a message board but rather a series of responses to the question being presented. We do encourage you to share your experiences in your own words.

Will a MedicineNet doctor respond to my comment?
No, we do not provide medical or health-care advice, treatment, or diagnosis. For more information see the MedicineNet Terms and Conditions and the MedicineNet Privacy Policy.

How long (amount of text) should my comment be?
We have no set limit to the length your comment can be although they typically tend to be a paragraph or two in length. Please keep your comments on topic to the question.

Can I include my email address or links to web sites?
No, we will either remove these from your comment or your comment will not be published.

Why is the published date a different date then when I submitted my comment?
We use a published date to represent when the comment was published on the MedicineNet site. Since we review every comment, there might be a delay from when a comment is submitted and when it is published.

On the submission page, why do you ask for optional information about the patient?
This optional information is displayed above the comment when it is published on the site. The purpose is to provide useful background information to other readers of the comments. This includes gender and age range of the patient and a screen name. Please note that the screen name will appear next to the published comment. Please do not include your full name or an email address - if we do notice this, we will edit this to keep your comment anonymous.

Why have the comment submissions on some Patients Comments questions ended?
When the Patient Comments responses for a question are over 20 comments (or around 4 pages), the submission function is closed. You can identify when submissions have ended by seeing a message below the question that reads  "Comment submissions for this question have ended" . Even though submissions have ended, you can still read all the responses from viewers to the question.

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