Do you think YA should hold these people accountable?!

Do you think YA should hold these people accountable?

I have had so many problems with this.There appear to be so many phony "MD's", "Doc's", etc. on here and I can't believe how many people actually think it is as good as a visit to their personal physician. A girl asked about chest pain 3 days ago and a person who said they were an MD told her" you are too young for heart problems". You have got to be kidding !!!! She was so grateful for that answer, depsite 30 others saying, "Go see your doctor". Do you think YA should this person accountable since if they are a physician, they would have malpractice ? Or if they aren't a doc, should they be punished as it is a felony to misrepresent yourself as a physician and it violates YA 's rules and guidelines. What can YA do to keep it from happening? I am torn in between thinking no sane person would believe a total stranger to feeling badly for the person who just wants reassurance or is that trusting. Who is at fault here ?

4 days ago
I never said YA should be held accountable, but I think some type of verification of credentials should be required. Anyone can come on here and lie about who they are. I am an RN and there are things I legally cannot do without being held legally responsible. Physicians have strict codes of conduct regarding medical advice, conduct, etc. Why should it be different on a health forum ?There are strict punishments that go with prescribing medical advice without a license . Some of the advice is absolutely dangerous.

4 days ago
**** BAltimore Wendy, if EVERYONE is aware of it, why do people take the advice to heart? Look in the medical / health forums and see how many people legitamately think this is an honest to God WebMD. I think there should be some type of punishment for people that take advantage of a person wanting an opinion or answer and lying about being a doctor. Like I said, it is illegal in all 50 states. If you really think some people don't take this as genuine medical advice, you need to do some looking around.

4 days ago
****Superdork, how does YA enforce that "escape " clause ? When a person poses as a physician and gives "advice" on conditions such as heart disease, medications, pregnancy, is it just ok? I agree 110% that NO person should EVER think that this forum constitutes as legit medical advice.

I agree with you also. I think most adults take the advice that they are getting on YA with a grain of salt but I have noticed that many children look to YA for answers to health questions and are often too naive to realize that the advice they are getting sometimes if false. I don't know is YA can police this, the best solution I can think of is to report people representing themselves as medial professionals that clearly have NO medical knowledge to YA by way of the flagging system they have set up. You can write a little note when you report someone that their advice is not consistent with existing medical knowledge and they may remove their screen name.