Quote:
Originally Posted by yorkietalkjilly  I think your example of a doctor recommending a patient he's treating using Google to help fully flesh-out the particulars of a professionally examined, diagnosed and possibly already treated medical condition as just one more teaching tool by a singular physician in an attempt to fully educate his patient, though in the process perhaps also providing them far more information than he or she would ever care to know - so, yeah, that is a bit sordid of Doc! hehe  But I doubt your doctor would recommend you self-diagnose and self-treat your medical condition using Google only!
So your Doc's recommendations of having his already diagnosed patient learn all about his or her medical condition feels far different from that of a person using the internet as a pitiful substitute for real veterinary care for their best friend, trying to self-diagnose their own poor, little dog, rather than getting that sweet baby in to see a vet for a professional work-up, opinion and actual treatment of his condition, in order to save money. I sure do feel for that little dog, probably still miserable and itching tonight.  |
He did actually say that all I needed to do was use google to compare my symptoms. My symptoms were pictorial so I don't know if that influenced what he said. I believe if this happens to me, it happens to others.
Anyway, my point is that drs (indeed, any expert in any discipline) can make informed decisions using the "PROMPT" process whereby they can make a decision on the source, provenance, timeliness etc of the information they are reading compared with and in addition to their knowledge. However, lay people are not all trained with this methodology so it is dangerous for some to use the internet for diagnostic guidelines and it is useful for others. I am not saying my doctor did anything wrong but I think I would have been in error had I relied solely on the internet instead of going to my doctor - despite his assurances. I think he would have been better to say, I am confident, this is why, you could tell in this way, good job for coming to me to check...etc.
Had I not been educated to see what he was doing, I may have thought that his advice, or indeed any professional advice, was without merit which is what I think happened in gemy's example.
That is what I mean by knowledge taking a sordid turn. You can be aware but not necessarily knowledgeable. I know about black holes but I'm not a physicist, therefore, I would not use the internet to make assertions on the basis of google.
Etc.
The fact that people do not take their animals to the vet when they should riles me to the point of no return! I should probably avoid threads like this in the future. It messes with my Zen.