When Doctors ‘Google’ Their Patients
"I remember when I first looked up a patient on Google. It was my last day on the bone marrow transplant unit, back when I was an intern. As I stood before the patient, taking her history, she told me she had been a painter and suggested I look up her work on the Internet. I did, and I found her paintings fascinating. Even though our paths crossed fleetingly, she is one of the few patients I vividly remember from that time.
Google has taught me other things, too, things that don’t come up during the routine history-taking or medication checks of my usual doctor-patient interactions. I learned recently, for example, that one of my patients had been an Olympic gold medalist and world-record holder in the 1960s. Knowing more about my patients as people helps build empathy.
Doctors do “Google” their patients. In fact, the vast majority of physicians I know have done so. To my generation, using a search engine like Google comes as naturally as sharing pictures of our children or a recent vacation on a social networking site like Facebook. But it surprises me that more physicians don’t pause and think about what it means for the patient-doctor relationship."
Interesting article about "Google" effect and Dr's via New York Times
Full article:
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/06/when-doctors-google-their-patients-2/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0
Article written by Matt Collins
You have great empathy Corina Marinescu : "But it surprises me that more physicians don’t pause and think about what it means for the patient-doctor relationship."
ReplyDeleteThe problem with "patient - googling" is that you might find more than you'd like to know. ;)
ReplyDeleteI see what you mean Corina Marinescu
ReplyDeleteDifferent medical system Hurol Aslan , different approach and in the end is all about how much we get involved. Is hard to not get involved if you are a pediatrician, if you're a surgeon...or if you work in ER and you have a patient with a strange condition ;)
ReplyDeleteFrom the empathy angle, I think an unintended emotional connection with a patient due to googling could easily be emotionally debilitating.
ReplyDeleteDepends Sean Walker ..
ReplyDeleteI mean, you'd trust a dr to fix your heart...give him some credit, a little googling wont "twist" his mind.
Doctors usually google me to see if I really was exercising when I said, or if I was just arguing on Twitter instead.
ReplyDeleteI give her lots of credit Corina Marinescu! ;) And more generally, clearly most doctors aren't emotional basket cases, so the reservation I expressed is obviously not a common problem.
ReplyDeleteMy comment was really a projection of my own sense of how I would deal emotionally with sick people. Of course people adapt to their circumstances, and so I might well develop a more effective frame of mind than I realize. But whenever I'm in a hospital I feel depressed looking at sick people. As a parallel, when I was younger I was quite shy and was very uncomfortable doing presentations to even small groups of people. My career forced me out of my shell and now I enjoy presenting to large groups - probably because it was liberating developing a comfort level with it.
So, for all I know, perhaps I would push past feeling depressed about sick people and instead find it rewarding that I could often affect a more positive outcome for them.
Stretching synapses is still a form of exercise ;)
ReplyDeleteSean Walker sorry for not googling before assuming you might have a "him" Dr.
ReplyDeleteThat is an awesome story! My company builds digital solutions for healthcare and we're always looking for physician and patient's perspectives how they relate to the use of technology. Our focus is greatly around patient adherence. Thanks for sharing this. :)
ReplyDeleteI am really surprised to hear the vast vast majority of physicians the author knows Google their patients. I am not a physician, but in my trade the vast majority of people I interact with do not, which has always surprised me. Not only would it give them am insight as to who they are dealing with, but could increase their chances of doing business.
ReplyDeleteGoogling every patient is time consuming especially if you work in ER or a big hospital, so is better to limit this. Besides how many people are "real" on the internet?
ReplyDeleteWe don't treat people for their great personalities...just for their condition/s.
But once in a while Google is a helpful tool in patient-doctor relationship.
At least should check if the patients have a history of... suing their doctor.
ReplyDeleteThis is why I don't have a personal physician. And I don't trust them for I don't think they have my best interest in hand. I've seen to many botched operations and proscriptions.
ReplyDeleteCome on Captain Jack ..not all the dr's are "evil" ;)
ReplyDeleteCaptain Jack You lost me... Do you mean you don't have a personal physician because you think they're invading your privacy? Wouldn't the same be potentially true of anybody else you might come into contact? Why would you be specifically concerned in this regard about Doctors? Also, why are you worried about the information on the Internet about you? *cough* paranoid *cough*
ReplyDeleteMaybe you need to spend some more time on dry land, perhaps the waves are addling your wits... ;)
This surprised me Corina Marinescu. In my field (mental health) many consider it unethical to google a client. We are supposed to only consider the information they chose to share with us. I disagree with the majority, in that I do believe there is a time and a place when looking up a client may be appropriate. I'm curious if there are any other therapists out there and what they think.
ReplyDeleteI worked several years in ER and we were googling patients, mostly the authentic ones or the ones who were hiding something and their condition was "strange".
ReplyDeleteSometimes a little clue helps and may even save someone's life, like where they were working ...narcotics history, where they traveled last week etc.
So, yes I agree there's a time and a place when looking up a patient is very useful for him/her.
From the other side's perspective, patients may also feel they have been googled. Not necessarily in an ER environment, but patients are people, they do observe, notice or analyse what their doctors say, or not say, and how they do it.
ReplyDeleteSean Walker I'm not worried about my privacy as it exist on the net. Just Google (captainjack63) and you should find over 6,000+ results. That's not even the tip if the ice berg. I won't get into a Youtube project that generated over 475,000,000+ views. What privacy I had prior to the internet has all vanished. Nope, I'm not worried.
ReplyDeleteI have not met a doctor that is as dedicated as I am. I've put my life on the line to carry out the assigned mission with my fellow brothers who served in combat. I was dedicated when I served in combat and I continue in my merchant marine profession. Had I sunk the Costa Concordia, I would have died from trying to rescue the ones who didn't make it to safety. Failure is never an option. Then of course I would have not put the ship in danger, and I would have had perfected safety drills.
So when I find a doc that's is as dedicated as I am, then I will ask if he or she be my doctor. :)
Corina Marinescu If I was a doc and needed an operation, I would attempt to do it myself.
ReplyDeleteI'm reminded of Paul Theroux's Mosquito Coast. The main character is.... well he's eccentric. This quote nicely sums up his perspective: "If it's on a map, I can't use it..."
ReplyDelete