Re: Thoughts on internet research

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 11/29/2001 7:19:41 AM Pacific Standard Time,

msk@... writes:

> In my experience (and this is professionally-speaking), people search

> the internet on the keywords they hear or know. Most people are not

> likely to make the leap from a keyword set of " gastric bypass " to the

> broader " weight loss surgery "

Well I did! I started out only knowing about the RNY but in my quest for

more and more information, I saw there were several other choices so I

started to put in weight loss surgery, WLS etc. That's how I stumbed on

s Duodenalswitch site! Anyone doing alot of research will hopefully

get the information to make an informed decision. I wish all drs and

surgeons had a booklet that was just a simple run down of all the types of

surgery, and everyone wanting surgery was required to read it. It really is

important to know all your choices.

~*~ AJ ~*~

Age 37 5'8'' Post op 7/24/01 Open DS

self pay - Dr Baltasar -Alcoy Spain

07/24/01 BMI 64 415.1

08/24/01 BMI 58 386.5 -28.6 lbs!

09/24/01 BMI 55.8 367.1 -48.0 lbs! -37.75 inches

10/24/01 BMI 52.6 346.0 -69.1 lbs!

11/24/01 BMI 49.8 322.0 -93.1lbs! -77 inches

11/26/01 BMI 48.8 321.0 -94.1 lbs

My profile:

http://www.obesityhelp.com/morbidobesity/profile.phtml?N=E982002956

My websites:

www.wls4aj.homestead.com

www.wlsbellingham.homestead.com

[Guest guest]

These days, I assume most people starting research on WLS will turn

to the internet (either at home or in local libraries). The only

problem with that is if you do a search for " gastric bypass " on

Yahoo, you get three " sponsored " (i.e., paid for) sites of

RNY/AGB/VBG surgeons or bariatric practices and twelve RNY web sites,

personal and professional (including one for a B & B in San Diego

specializing in accomodations for patients...wow!). If you switch to

Google and do a search for " gastric bypass " , the very first site

listed is Dr. Rutledge's Mini-Gastric Bypass site. You get better

results (i.e., more DS or inclusive descriptions) if you search

" weight loss surgery " , but the keywords people are hearing these days

are " gastric bypass " and " carnie wilson " . Guess what you retrieve

when you put those in??

In my experience (and this is professionally-speaking), people search

the internet on the keywords they hear or know. Most people are not

likely to make the leap from a keyword set of " gastric bypass " to the

broader " weight loss surgery " IF they find anything helpful to them

on the first search. The " gastric bypass " search yields 17,000+ hits

(10,000+ if you include the quotation marks). If the search returns

primarily RNY or otherwise non-DS bariatric practices in the first

two or three pages, how far down the line do you think people go,

especially if there is nothing in those pages to indicate that there

is an alternative?? Yahoo and Google, two of the most popular search

engines on the web, rank their search results by word proximity and

frequency (the words " gastric bypass " appear hundreds of times on Dr.

Rutledge's site because of its inclusion in the term " mini-gastric

bypass " , hence that site is the first in the results). People have

to KNOW to search for " duodenal switch " in order to find it and last

time I checked, that phrase isn't common in the popular press.

The DS gets far too little " press " , either traditionally speaking or

on the web. If it hadn't been for an online friend I met through a

totally different forum, I'd have never had heard of it (except that

it is likely I would have stumbled onto Rabkin through my local

support group meetings).

Done rambling...up too early.

At 10:45 PM -0800 11/28/01, Alyssa wrote:

>it -- the prog was meant to be a bio, not a sales-pitch. If someone saw the

>show and started researching " gastric bypass, " they might very well wind up

>finding info on the DS -- I did! We can hope, right?

[Guest guest]

I agree about the DS getting way too little press.

My husband is a web developer-----maybe we should have a

powwow, and see if we can get your site registered on the various

search engines. What you think?

Pammi

> >it -- the prog was meant to be a bio, not a sales-pitch. If

someone saw the

> >show and started researching " gastric bypass, " they might very

well wind up

> >finding info on the DS -- I did! We can hope, right?

[Guest guest]

I had totally discounted the idea of WLS even after I read the

article about Carnie in People Magazine. I still have the

article in my desk...I remember reading the comments about " bad

eating " and essentially forcing behavioral modification through

physical punishment turned me off to the whole idea, even though I

was still inspired by her - and I didn't even know what an RNY was at

that point!!! It wasn't until my online friend (Brynn!!...she said

" not the one Carnie had... " ) told me that she'd had the

surgery that I realized there was an option! At that point, I

started truly researching it KNOWING that all that I was reading was

not from the same perspective.

I'm sure a lot of people will find and stumble upon the DS

information on the internet...a lot of people here have said that's

how it happened for them (including me). However, for example, AMOS

lists 30 people having surgery today and another 29 in the upcoming

month...and not ONE of them is getting a DS. I'm sure all of those

people, in some part, did their research on WLS on the internet.

Granted, AMOS is a self-selecting group of people and I know of

several people getting DS in the coming months who do not have AMOS

profiles, but still. AMOS was the first web site I looked at in

detail and the AMOS description of the DS surgery is brief,

misleading and contains the loaded statement: " Although this

procedure successfully promotes weight loss, it is not widely used

because of the high risk for nutritional deficiencies. "

I'm ranting here and probably not making any sense. I realize that

some people choose the RNY for very specific reasons, even if they

know of the DS; reasons related to finance, psychology, emotion

and/or availability. Personally, once I knew about the DS, I was

ready to refinance the house if that was what it took. I guess, like

many, I get frustrated when I hear of people getting the RNY simply

out of ignorance, either self-imposed (insufficient research) or

medically-induced (bad info from doctors). Unfortunately, the only

way they're going to know is if the information is made more widely

available and unbiased. I know that takes time, but I'm an impatient

kind of woman!

Rant off,

At 8:39 AM -0800 11/29/01, lookn2bthin@... wrote:

>In a message dated 11/29/2001 7:19:41 AM Pacific Standard Time,

>msk@... writes:

>

>> In my experience (and this is professionally-speaking), people search

>> the internet on the keywords they hear or know. Most people are not

>> likely to make the leap from a keyword set of " gastric bypass " to the

>> broader " weight loss surgery "

>

>Well I did! I started out only knowing about the RNY but in my quest for

>more and more information, I saw there were several other choices so I

>started to put in weight loss surgery, WLS etc. That's how I stumbed on

>s Duodenalswitch site! Anyone doing alot of research will hopefully

>get the information to make an informed decision. I wish all drs and

>surgeons had a booklet that was just a simple run down of all the types of

>surgery, and everyone wanting surgery was required to read it. It really is

>important to know all your choices.

[Guest guest]

I wonder how much it would cost to get it Sponsored under Yahoo for

" gastric bypass " or " weight loss surgery " searches???

-m

At 8:55 AM -0800 11/29/01, psbilyeu@... wrote:

>I agree about the DS getting way too little press.

>

>My husband is a web developer-----maybe we should have a

>powwow, and see if we can get your site registered on the various

>search engines. What you think?

>

[Guest guest]

I'll talk to him tonight! BTW, he is having the DS in Feb.!!! I get

to go back to Spain and show off some results!! His date is Feb.

26th. Here I go again!!! I started this whole process because he

needs this more than I, just thought I was going to be a widow too

soon.

Pammi

-35#s at 6weeks out

> > I agree about the DS getting way too little press.

> >

> > My husband is a web developer-----maybe we should have a

> > powwow, and see if we can get your site registered on the various

> > search engines. What you think?

>

> It already appears highly ranked on a bunch of them, but I have

never

> made a concerted effort to flesh out the keywords, etc. If he wants

to

> help improve the rankings and keywords, that would be great!

>

>

[Guest guest]

Pammi,

I think that is a great idea! The better you formulate your meta

tags, and the more search engines you can get onto...(in the old days

that was free, now it cost moolah)... the more we can get the word

out. Perhaps we need to take up a donation and register with some.

This influences also, the position something will come up in a search!

Great thinking!

Theresa

DS 11-19-01

Dr. Jossart

-13#s

(I have ankles and one hip bone! Yeee Haw!)

> > >it -- the prog was meant to be a bio, not a sales-pitch. If

> someone saw the

> > >show and started researching " gastric bypass, " they might very

> well wind up

> > >finding info on the DS -- I did! We can hope, right?

[Guest guest]

,

All I can say girlfriend is, " YOU ROCK " , and we are so lucky to have

you!

Huge hugs,

Theresa

DS 11-19-01

Dr. Jossart

-13#s

(I have ankles and one hip bone! Yeee Haw!)

> I went in just now and added the following information to the html

of

> each page on the website:

>

> <META NAME= " Keywords " CONTENT= " gastric bypass, obesity

surgery,

> bariatric surgery, weight loss surgery, duodenal switch,

> biliopancreatic diversion, BPD/DS, DGB/DS, DS, BPD, RNY, VBG,

> stomach stapling, Scopinaro " >

>

> <META NAME= " Health " CONTENT= " Information about this unique

form

> of obesity surgery which has the best long-term percentage of

> excess weight loss and a magnificent post-operative eating

> quality. " >

>

> I had this stuff in there before, but it must have gotten lost in

the

> translation when I upgraded the site! HostRocket actually has a

search

> engine submission tool that supposedly submits the site to a bunch

of

> different places. I'll use that right now.

>

> If anyone wants to submit the site to any search engine with the

info

> above, please feel free. Any suggestions on improving the keywords

or

> description are also welcome!

>

> Sincerely,

>

> Magruder, site administrator

> Duodenal Switch Information Zone

> http://www.duodenalswitch.com

>

> Direct replies: mailto:melanie@t...

[Guest guest]

When the hubby gets home we'll talk about how to do this to help

. He has to register sites all the time--don't know if he can

get any discounts on volume.

I wish there was someway to get a plug or link on the AMos site. It

would be nice to have a clarification of sorts too. Instead of

saying the negative statement they do--to perhaps say this surgery

requires dilegent intake and monitoring of protein and vitamin

levels.

Why should we be paying for this? What about some of the surgeons

that do this surgery? The AMOS site sells our info to all these

BOZOs for spam that I get, maybe we can buy an ad spot too.

I was thinking we could approach the docs that already have sites to

have links inserted in their sites for the DS info zone too.

I don't know if you have seen the flash prentation that Dr. Husted

has done--I wonder if he would let us use it for the DS info zone?

That is so excellent.

Well I am babbling--will keep thinking about this.

Pammi

> > > >it -- the prog was meant to be a bio, not a sales-pitch. If

> > someone saw the

> > > >show and started researching " gastric bypass, " they might very

> > well wind up

> > > >finding info on the DS -- I did! We can hope, right?

[Guest guest]

You know, part of the problem on the AMOS site is that some of the

doctors who do the DS in California don't have profiles...this is the

case with Dr. Rabkin and Dr. Jossart, who aren't even on the doctor

list for California, and there's no link to Dr. Keshishian's web site

from the list.

I sent an email to Jeannie Colter[jc@...] who updates

info for that site, asking her to add the information, so we'll see

if it happens...

If your surgeon isn't on the list, you can get them listed by sending

an email to her.

http://www.obesityhelp.com/morbidobesity/findadoc.phtml

Gil

Dr. Keshishian

11/8 - 264 lbs

11/26 - 240 lbs

> > > > >it -- the prog was meant to be a bio, not a sales-pitch. If

> > > someone saw the

> > > > >show and started researching " gastric bypass, " they might

very

> > > well wind up

> > > > >finding info on the DS -- I did! We can hope, right?

[Guest guest]

Actually, Dr. Rabkin is there...he just doesn't show up on the California

listing for some odd reason. Same with Dr. Jossart.

Here's Rabkin's profile:

http://www.obesityhelp.com/morbidobesity/mdcomments.phtml?N=964844868

Here's Jossart's profile:

http://www.obesityhelp.com/morbidobesity/mdcomments.phtml?N=982889590

-maria

> > > > > >it -- the prog was meant to be a bio, not a sales-pitch. If

> > > > someone saw the

> > > > > >show and started researching " gastric bypass, " they might

> very

> > > > well wind up

> > > > > >finding info on the DS -- I did! We can hope, right?