Growing older is challenging enough, but trying to get a handle on medical breakthroughs that might actually improve our lives, breakthroughs that might even save our lives is overwhelming. Never mind the hundreds of press releases that churn out of university research labs, private enterprise and government think tanks, never mind the barrage of television talks shows that naively and implicitly endorse an abundance of untested consumer fads and follies every waking day.

With mountains of medical information, much of it accurate and some not, individuals with access to the Web and other health information resources are starting to wonder whether or not the family Doctor has the latest research in hand. We start to wonder: Is our doctor aware of the latest clinical trial affecting our malady? Maybe he is, maybe not.

Our doctors and other health support personnel are highly skilled, naturally talented individuals who are also overworked, are being asked to take on more responsibility everyday. The knowledge base we are building about disease, genetics and biomedical research is simply explosive. Even as universities and teaching hospitals exploit technology as best they can to empower their students, knowledge overload is limiting the very capabilities we are trying to improve upon. While medical students can take advantage of the support of their school's resources, how does the mid-career health professional keep attuned to all of the relevant advances in their specialty? Like it or not, we need to take more responsibility for understanding our health. It means learning to tell the difference between the science of medicine and the politics of healthcare.

We must learn to discern among our own conflicting attitudes about our health: we may be angry about the high cost of medicines, but we still welcome the health benefits from having them. The wait in the doctor's office may indeed be the result of a poorly managed healthcare system, but much of the treatment you receive there is the culmination of many years of pure scientific research. It is essential we take the time to know the difference.

Who are the people that need this information most? The answer is simple: the terminally ill, the chronically afflicted and the elderly. Burdened with the reality of disease and declining quality of life, real discovery and its application should be the paramount mission of the caregiving community. Aside from the immediate need of these people, all of us need to better understand our bodies, the possibility of disease, the complexities of our imperfect health care system and what to expect as we move through our own life cycle. No matter who we are, we are in need of an ongoing education in science, regardless of our station or our age, our lives depend on it.

As a community, we need to discover new ways to communicate, we need new ways to archive, store and retrieve accurate data, we need new ways to disseminate timely scientific information and do it in a way that can be accessed and understood by a less educated population. We need a new focus on interpretation, education and dissemination.

As individuals, we need to learn how to express ourselves more effectively, we need to articulate our concerns and shed the Godlike reverence we have for doctors and replace it with a real respect for their abilities, experience and limitations. Most importantly, we need to begin doing it for ourselves.