Intellectual Property and Medical Diagnosis

Looking up articles about the history of intellectual property, mixed with the terrible cold I came down with this past week, got me thinking about how the internet can help the creation of ideas.  Many websites such as webmd offer free medical advice, but more often than not I feel that people (myself included) are reading too much into cold and flu symptoms.  People can put themselves into a panic over something that, if properly diagnosed, could be nothing more than a nasty case of the sniffles.  While the internet can be a great tool for looking up cold remedies, finding opinions on what kind of tea works best to soothe a sore throat, and other non-panic-inducing ideas, I feel it can also put ideas into people's minds that do more harm than good.