Kevin, MD continues his takeover of the media, with another very good editorial in USA Today:
Doctors ignore Internet at their own peril
By Kevin Pho
Raise your hand if you've ever left a physician's office without fully understanding what the doctor just told you. According to The New England Journal of Medicine, half of patients admit to not understanding what their doctor told them during an office visit.
As a primary care physician, being unable to clearly communicate with patients is frustrating. The typical, 15-minute office visit often is not sufficient for a thorough discussion. A better way to connect with patients is needed.
Perhaps that is why more patients are turning to the Internet…
via Column: Doctors ignore Internet at their own peril – Opinion – USATODAY.com.
I am always surprised at the number of people I meet, at all levels of medicine, who are unaware of medical blogs and the quality of writing and information. No longer are they just some person on the fringe but often include doctor generated comments.
Being 55 I am not one of those young folks tied to a smart phone. Instead I am interested in the drivers in medicine and why we have reached a point where reasonable medical care has become so expensive or unavailable. You will not have this discussion in the doctors office.
On my last visit to my former doctor I asked if he read medical bogs or used the internet. He replied “you get what you pay for” and he relied on drug reps and medical journals. No need to guess why he is now my former doctor.
Steve Lucas
I read medical blogs because I find medicine and biology interesting. (I don’t work in a medical field.) Any time I have a medical issue, or a close friend or family member does, I use Google Scholar to research it.
One of the reasons is that what I am told in the dr’s office, and in any handouts, is written at about an 8th grade reading level and is very superficial. I want more in-depth information so I can learn what questions I ought to be asking and get that most easily from Google scholar.
Thanks for being understanding – most medical blogs treat the subject of patients looking up their diagnoses on the internet in a rather negative manner. I understand that doctors may get frustrated when patients bring up homeopathy and other non-science “treatments” they find on the internet, but I wish all doctors would consider that some of us are intelligent and well educated and are capable of determining what internet info is legitimate.
Yes, well…..I have that problem. I am intelligent enough to understand but I am so anxious when I am there I quite often have a goldfishes memory. These days I note doc’s requirements on my iphone so I have a reference to remind me. I have been going to the same doc for 25yrs so I think he understands these days.