The Internet has been found a new usage. Increasingly, more and more Americans are having a(an) {#blank#}1{#/blank#}to become their own doctors, by going online to order home health tests or medical devices, or even self-treat their illnesses with drugs from Internet pharmacies(药店). Some people{#blank#}2{#/blank#} doctors because of the high cost medical care, especially if they{#blank#}3{#/blank#} health insurance. Or they may{#blank#}4{#/blank#} to see a doctor because they find it embarrassing to discuss their weight, alcohol consumption or couch potato habits. Patients may also fear what they might learn about their health, or they distrust physicians because of {#blank#}5{#/blank#}in the past. But to become their own doctors can be{#blank#}6{#/blank#}.

    Every day, more than six million American search the Internet for medical answers. Most of them have no{#blank#}7{#/blank#} about what they find. In 2002, a survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 72 percent of those surveyed believe all or most of what they read on health websites. Actually, most of such web sites are only interested in doing{#blank#}8{#/blank#} business. Of the 169 websites the researchers rated, only 16 scored as "high quality". Recent studies found faulty facts about all sorts of other disorders, causing one research team to {#blank#}9{#/blank#} that a large amount of incomplete, inaccurate and even dangerous information exists on the Internet.

    The problem is that most people don't know the safe way to surf the web. "They use a search engine like Google, get 18 trillion choices and start clicking. But that's risky, because almost anybody can put up a site that looks {#blank#}10{#/blank#} , so it's hard to know National Cancer Institute.