A clinical professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Medical School, Dr. Renner was also the president of the National Council for Reliable Health Information, where he spent countless hours surfing health sites on the Internet and rating them for accuracy.
“The Internet is a useful tool for consumers to find health information,” he told the New York Academy of Medicine this summer. “However, we must constantly arm ourselves with discretion in determining whether the information is trustworthy. You have to know how to navigate around the quackery and questionable claims of cures.” On September 2, he called 911 because of chest pain, and died later that day after emergency heart surgery. He was 67.