Doctors are the new search engines
Thursday, July 26, 2012 at 9:44PM Jason Berek-Lewis Founder, Healthy Startups
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With research showing that patients, or healthy cyborgs (see http://healthystartups.com/founders-blog/2011/11/10/the-rise-of-healthy-cyborgs.html), are going online seeking information to spark discussions with their trusted health professionals, and some research showing that 4/5 people search online for health information, it's time for doctors to fight back...
The trap for healthy cyborgs
The 0s and 1s revolution means that we now have access to more information than at any time in our history. But, how much of the health information online is trustworthy? A 2010 study conducted in the United Kingdom found that only 39 percent of sampled health websites provided accurate information (see http://www.bupa.com.au/staticfiles/Bupa/HealthAndWellness/MediaFiles/PDF/LSE_Report_Online_Health.pdf). The large volume of dubious online health information provides a unique opportunity for medcial professionals to create a new role for themselves in the information economy.
Doctors fight back!
The web now puts nearly infinite amount of information at the finger tips of our parents/patients. This can be good and bad. However, pediatrician(s) are specialist(s) that are educated in a very specific discipline thus making them highly trusted sources of information. This puts them in an excellent position to curate, manage, filter and organize the information that is on the web.
The truth is, there is a lot of bad information out there regarding pediatric health issues. And as long as that information remains unchecked, parents will assimilate it and credit it as factual. But by embracing the web as pediatric curators, pediatricians have the potential to procure the best healthcare related information on the web and share it with their network.
Brandon Betancourt writing on http://www.kevinmd.com
Our trust in doctors and medical professionals remains strong (see http://www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/2818/Doctors-are-most-trusted-profession-politicians-least-trusted.aspx). Doctors have an opportunity to use this position of trust to become the new curators of health information.
Doctors who understand curation, who know how to use social bookmarking tools like Pinterest, who know where to find the best and most relevant information will be the ones who add real value to care of their patients - whether they are healthy cyborgs or not...
Do you think patients want their doctors to act as search engines? Are doctors ready to fill this role? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Health, Healthy Cyborgs, curators, doctors, internet in Communications, Health, Social media
Reader Comments (16)
I love this post Jason. Thanks for spreading the word about the opportunity for doctors to regain their status as the most trusted source of medical information! Now if we can just help them control their own reputations on Google. Technology will play a huge role in that.
I´m a gynaecologist working on Assisted Reproduction, our patients are young, healthy and have high levels of anxiety. They usually look for information about their fertility problem through the internet and they are used to discuss these facts in forums. If doctors were working as search engines it would be easier for them to find trusted information and this will help us in the office when we explain treatments to reduce this anxiety levels. In my opinion it's our responsability as Doctors to provide this kind of trusted information. But we can't do it alone, we need technology internet experts in this new Doctors2.0 era.
Simon, thanks so much for your comment. I am not a doctor, but I do work closely with medical professionals and I have seen some who see the web/ social media as a threat and others who see it as a great opportunity - I can guess which side you are on. If you are interested, you are welcome to share your views on this topic via a guest post on our Startup Blog (see www.healthystartups.com/startup-blog).
Anabel, pregnancy/ reproductive issues can be extremely emotional and when we look to the internet for help, there is also the risk of getting misinformation that only compounds this anxiety. Given this, you are spot on about the roles that doctors can play as search engines for credible, trusted information that can help to reduce this anxiety. I'd like to know more of your thoughts about how doctors and internet, social media experts can work together to give patients access to the best information. Thanks so much for your feedback on this post!
Thank you for your comments Jason. It would be a pleasure to share my opinions with you about this issue. Now I follow you on Twitter. Feel free to contact me by email or just tweet
Sure Jason, I'd love to. Send me directions how to submit guest post.
Thanks Anabel - it will be great to talk more on social media.
Thanks Simon - I will email you today!
In my experience most physicians don't have the time or desire to curate health content -its our job as health entrepreneurs to make the change in behavior so easy that they simply integrate it into their everyday routines. For our property spineuniverse.com we actually gave a printed "information prescription" to the physician that had check marks for topics of further study. The doctor would check off what he wanted the patient to read online and hand the Information Prescription to the patient to take home. We did the curating for him and made it as easy as writing a script (something they do everyday) to point the patient in to high quality physician authored content. We tracked the whole process and were surprised by the extent of both the physician adoption and the patient engagement.
Hi Bill, Thanks for your comment and it is great to see you taking an innovative approach to helping doctors share information with their patients. I really love the idea of the 'information prescription' - it is something that is so simple and it makes sense to the doctor and the patient in the setting of a consultation. I'd love to know more about the engagement levels - maybe you could write a guest post to share the outcomes with the readers of Healthy Startups?
I'd be happy to. Any guidelines?
I'll send you an email.
Because I've created a space for myself on the internet to raise awareness of lupus, people give me lots of links to "medical information". It appears, that for the purposes of the internet, the term "clinical trials" can often be translated as "someone thinks this might be a good idea", "proven" means "one person did it and happened to go into remission at the time", etc, etc. If I harassed my doctors with every "cure" I was sent, I'd drive them mad. (And yet, whenever another patient contacts me and says they are planning to try one of these things, I usually say, "it would be a good idea to check with your rheumatologist first", because I'm not willing to be the one to destroy someone's hopes by telling them they're considering buying snake oil.)
The reality of my condition makes me understand why people will grasp at any of these things in hopes that something will be better. I wonder if there is a place in a doctor's time (and I know doctors are always pushed for time) to educate patients how to recognise the crank cures for themselves?
Thanks Iris. I have worked closely with people living with musculoskeletal conditions (including lupus) and I know how powerful it can be when you see a website/ read a story promising a 'miracle cure' and an end to the pain and discomfort.
I don't think there is anything wrong with driving your doctor mad - that's what you pay them for!
Absolutely agree with you Jason that doctors not only have an opportunity to play a valuable role in translating information for patients and joining in the online conversations and I go so far as to say they have a duty to do this. They need to act as interpreters of data, and be willing to separate the tangible information from the increasing amount of noise patients find online.
Thanks Marie - very interesting to read your view on a doctor's 'duty' to participate in online conversations. In this role, doctors are much more than search engines. The new opportunity for doctors to build their online brands comes in the form of blogs, Twitter, Facebook and even Pinterest - but to do so in a way that is engaging with and sharing with patients and people living with health conditions... no matter where they live in the world. How exciting is that?!
Absolutely Jason! Now we just need to get more buy-in from the medical profession!
The 'old' institutions of the medical professions - the professional associations, medical colleges and education institutions, hospitals - will continue to be slow to move.
Young doctors coming in to health systems will operate as lone 'healthy cyborgs' taking a BYOD approach, hacking their own solutions and building their own social networks OUTSIDE the system...