A technology that makes a pioneering or profiteering clinic somewhere overseas a mere Google search away, the Internet is changing the nature of patient advocacy. It’s amping up the activism.

And those more activist patients, who share information and strategies through email, discussion boards and Facebook, are actually in some cases altering the research agenda in fields such as cancer, alternative medicine and now multiple sclerosis.

Some want access to experimental drugs or therapies before science has proven that they are safe or useful. In other cases, they are agitating for a say in which theories, techniques or treatments get research funding.