How Helpful is Online Medical Advice?

Contributed by: Dennis Fortier, President, Medical Care Corporation
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If you have a medical symptom, should you go online and educate yourself before seeing your physician?  A recent article at the Huffington Post makes the case that patients who do, often pose a great burden on their physician.

I am sure that may be true sometimes.  In fact, this blog is dedicated to clarifying the online news about brain health because we recognize how much misleading information is available on the internet.  But there is another side to this story.

Because medical knowledge leaps forward more broadly and more quickly than physicians can absorb it, there is a long lag between the "state of medical knowledge" and the "state of medical practice".  Any conscientious physician will recognize this, and will welcome good sources of updated information.  Importantly, patients are becoming increasingly viable sources of such information.

Overall, I agree that there is lots of misleading medical information online, and I agree that dispelling online myths is a new burden for physicians.  But in a great many instances, a well informed patient can help a physician give much better care.

You should follow Brain Today on twitter here

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3 comments :

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