Googling for Diagnoses
When Patients Google for Diagnoses
Even though Tang, et al.,1 cautioned in their study that patients who use Google to find their own diagnosis may find it less efficient and may be less likely than a physician to retrieve the correct diagnosis, organizations such as the Patients Association in the United Kingdom voiced their concerns that the study might encourage the public to self-diagnose. Their primary concern was the lack of regulation of most sites, leading, at best, to some unreliable information.
This view is shared by Art Papier, MD, associate professor of dermatology and medical informatics at the University of Rochester (N.Y.) School of Medicine and Dentistry. Dr. Papier understands the Internet is a powerful and useful tool for gathering information, but it may also be a risk in the hands of people who do not take the time to identify trusted and high-quality sites.
Research shows that most people limit their searches to the one or two first pages of search engine hits they get. Although sites from the National Institutes of Health or the National Library of Medicine, for instance, might appear at the top of a search list, so can commercial sites whose information is of lesser quality and who may be aggressively marketing a product. “The evidence is that many patients do not take the time to differentiate a good and bad site,” says Dr. Papier. “They just use what they get as the [list’s] top sites. That’s a real problem.”
Dr. Papier is hopeful that as the quality of the search engines improve, many of these commercial sites with limited information will no longer appear at the top of the search.
On the other side of the issue, there are some great Web sites with solid information. The ramifications for hospitalists, says Dr. Papier, largely involve counseling patients to consider the reliability of sites they consult and understand that key search words and the capacity to interpret results is something for which a patient ultimately could use the help of a doctor. Hospitalists who distribute a list of the best sites to consult for a particular diagnosis or treatment to patients upon discharge will be contributing the most to their patients’ well-being.
“With hospitalized patients,” says Dr. Papier, “that is, the patient with cancer or heart disease, for instance, the family may find on the Internet a side effect of a medication and bring it to the attention of the provider, who may have been too rushed to think through that side effect or who was unaware.” This is one way families of hospitalized patients have been using the Internet in partnership with physicians.
“Patients and families are Googling [health info] like crazy,” says Dr. Papier. “It’s somewhat random whether they get quality info. It behooves both hospitals and hospitalists to help patients and family members find the quality sites. More and more it is becoming a part of the responsibilities of patient care in the modern era.” —AS
