Nowadays more people do online research about their physical condition before seeing the doctor. They look at their symptoms, possible diagnoses, and different lines of suggested treatment for each diagnosis before they even think about setting an appointment with their primary care physician.
Many doctors actually appreciate the fact that patients are trying to take a more active role in making decisions about their health care. The amount of medical information out there is so large physicians will simply not have the time to look up every published article on different medical conditions their patients encounter. By doing their research patients can now bring medical information that would have been easily missed a few years ago to their doctors' attention.
The availability of online medical data also allows patients to be more conscientious about their health and informed about their diseases. These days virtually all doctors have patients who search for health information online and more than two-thirds of physicians actually approve of this behavior.
Given that the majority of doctors support those who take a pro-active stance with their health, why would some patients perceive physicians as hostile to their empowerment?
But patients also have to be careful when dealing with their doctors. One problem is that most physicians simply do not have the luxury of time to engage in detailed conversations about different medical strategies they may take in dealing with an ailment. The reason? Their doctors' work environment is just not conducive for such discussions. The physician's environment usually revolves around 15-minute office visits and this means patients are often interrupted during the first 20 seconds after they start talking. Doctors often do not have enough time to spend with patients. Increasing practice costs pressure doctors into seeing more and more patients in a regular work day.
Doctors now often fail to develop medically meaningful long-term relationships with their patients. This leaves many patients angry while their doctors are also getting frustrated. And while other industries have embraced e-mail and digital record keeping, doctors have little financial incentive to use them. A primary care physician who normally deals with 30 patients in a day and then has spend hours addressing insurance issues simply will not have time to e-mail patients.
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