It is always refreshing to meet the occasional patient who has deep insight about her medical condition, but immediately she starts talking about an abdominal ultrasound for her child\u2019s fungal skin infection, you know she has been doing a little too much googling.<\/p>\n
The major problem with ardently sourcing medical information from the internet is the likelihood of fixation on the worst possible diagnosis, and the fear and anxiety that comes with it, a problem some psychologists have come to refer to as cyberchondria.<\/p>\n
Researchers Ryen White and Eric Horvitz describe cyberchondria as the unfounded escalation of concerns about common symptomology based on review of search results and literature online.<\/p>\n
For the cyberchondriac, constipation is a result of colon cancer and forgetting to turn off the kitchen light before sleeping is due to dementia. \u00a0The emotional and psychological consequence of such fixation is distressing for the patient and a headache for the doctor who has to spend extra time mollifying the patient\u2019s distress.<\/p>\n
There are others who may not be described as cyberchondriacs, but rely on online medical information all the same, to decide whether a symptom warrants a doctor\u2019s visit or not, whether a home remedy is available for a particular diagnosis- probably also arrived at from an online search, or whether they can avoid their doctor\u2019s advice without consequence.<\/p>\n
The first question each internet surfer would have to ask is whether the information discovered can be trusted or not.<\/p>\n
Researchers from Nottingham University\u2019s department of pediatrics, in 2010, conducted a study to evaluate the reliability and accuracy of health information accessed via the internet. The researchers sought advice for five common pediatric questions and analyzed the first 100 search results for each inquiry. Of the 500 sites studied, 39% contained correct information, 11% were incorrect and a staggering 49% failed to answer the question.<\/p>\n
The authenticity of information on the web may not be readily verifiable and sometimes attempts at verification only produces a loop of interconnected links that dubiously give credence to an unfounded claim. Some assume they can surmount this problem by always going for the top sites, but the top sites displayed from a google search are not necessarily the most reliable; these are usually sponsored sites, which are advertising their products and services and may skew information in their own favour. Even the so-called reputable websites cannot always be trusted. This is confirmed by Matthew Chung and colleagues in their study (published in the Journal of Paediatrics in December, 2012), which found that only half of the educational websites (university websites, e-books, peer reviewed articles, etc.) contained accurate medical information about a specific search inquiry.<\/p>\n
Another problem in jumping to the internet for medical information is the inability to process the information. The facts may all be spelt out correctly, but in medical jargon that the layman cannot comprehend. An attempt to decipher such language thus produces errors.<\/p>\n
There may also be fine differences that may not be conveyed clearly in the internet source. One symptom may have nuanced expressions and identifying these tiny differences may be the key to the diagnosis. A headache may be frontal (on the forehead), occipital (at the back of the head) or global (the whole head). The very same headache may be intermittent or constant and may have associated symptoms or not; it is the totality of the various aspects of this headache, and not just the single symptom, that is important to the doctor. This is what will distinguish fatigue from a brain tumour and the 1001 other causes of headaches.<\/p>\n
In all the worry about the authenticity of information on the web and the ordinary man\u2019s ability to understand medical language, we have to agree that the internet can be a beneficial platform for patients. The internet has helped many people make important medical decisions that have saved lives. The internet has brought people living with chronic diseases like sickle cell disease and diabetes mellitus closer, to share their experiences in online support groups. The internet has taught many survival skills and healthy lifestyle strategies that in the past would have required a costly trip to an expert to obtain.<\/p>\n
It is therefore time for the physician to review his idea of the role of the patient in the current information age. The patient is no more just a recipient of the doctor\u2019s advice; the patient has access to a world of information, information the doctor may not even be aware of. Physicians should not see such a patient who has a vested interest in their own health as a know-it-all, or as we usually call them, \u201ctoo known\u201d, but rather as a partner in the quest for optimum health. It is only when we see them as such that we can help them utilize the information on the web. It behooves us, as physicians, to direct our patients to reliable sources, to help them differentiate between information from reputable sites like the Mayo clinic and Web MD and that from the blog of a teenager nursing a chronic illness.<\/p>\n
The patient must also be more responsible with the information they gather from the net. They should realize that the internet can teach you many things, but it will not provide the combination of knowledge, skill and art that 6 to 7 years of medical school, plus a subsequent lifetime of experience, will give you. And this is ultimately what is required to make a confident diagnosis.<\/p>\n
As Edward de Bono says, \u201cthere\u2019s a danger in the internet and social media. The notion that information is enough, that more and more information is enough, that you don\u2019t have to think, you just have to get more information- gets very dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
By: K.T. Nimako (MB ChB)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dr. Kojo Nimako is a private medical practitioner with an interest in public health and Citi FM\u2019s Chief Medical Correspondent. He is also the Executive Director of Helping Hand Medical Outreach, an NGO focused on health education.<\/p>\n
E-mail: kojotwumnimako@gmail.com<\/p>\n
Twitter: @KTNimako<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It is always refreshing to meet the occasional patient who has deep insight about her medical condition, but immediately she starts talking about an abdominal ultrasound for her child\u2019s fungal skin infection, you know she has been doing a little too much googling. The major problem with ardently sourcing medical information from the internet is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":69253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[8,15,38],"yoast_head":"\n