Dr. Hairder Javed Warraich wrote an article in the New York Times about Googling a patient, which raises the question: Should doctors Google their patients?
Some argue YES, others, NO.
I was going to muse upon the pros and cons when Dr. Richard Taylor, who lives with dementia, sent me a link via Google+ to the Dementia Alliance International website where I found the following powerful video listed on the blog page.
Pause for five minutes to watch this video. Afterwards, please finish reading the musings then tell us: What do you think?
Click on the text link or the embedded video, below. [Link updated 3/28/2018]
Empathy: The Human Connection to Patient Care – If we could look through each other’s eyes.
YES.
When you consider the brief amount of time we spend in a doctor’s office, more is left unsaid than said. Unless you write notes to refer to during your appointment, hours after you see your doctor, you’ll realize: Oh, I should have asked _____!
If your life is such that it piques your doctor’s curiosity to search you online, how fortunate you are. Your doctor may glean a detail you may have overlooked or thought inconsequential.
NO.
There are those who argue about privacy rights.
To which I ask, what privacy is there when people bare their lives online via Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, and even LinkedIn?
Better your doctor to learn about you than a criminal, right?
Sometimes, people (want to) forget pieces of their past that could provide useful information to help doctors better understand why they are experiencing symptoms many years later.
CAVEAT. Need Honesty.
Because the Internet is fraught with both fact and fiction and both are inseparably intertwined, it’s best for the doctor to use the search results as a foundation to learn more about you while jogging your memory about the past.
While your doctor says, “I was curious about your symptoms and wanted to learn more about you. I see, several years ago you ______, can you tell me more?”
You might respond, “Uh, ohhh, that was an embarrassing time I tried to forget…”
After all, aren’t we saying that medicine should treat the whole person?
What do you think?
Would you be pleased to learn your doctor has reached beyond the office to learn more about you?
Do you feel all of this is a bit creepy and see the need for boundaries?
[TCV Update 6/23/2022: The two URLs for additional information have been removed due to one not being available and the other, pointing to another’s website.]
Very Interesting. I would not care if my doctor googled me. I am pretty honest with them anyway.