Personal patient Web sites transform the experience of illness, users say

Using individual healthcare Web sites that allow patients to share the progress of serious injury or illness, people confronted with health emergencies can keep friends and family updated instantly on how they are doing. Between CaringBridge and CarePages, two of the industry's large patient Web services, nearly 200,000 sites have been created in the past decade. Hundreds more have gone up on private systems sponsored by hospitals.