A survey of 1,000 people found that 12 per cent turn first to Google. Fewer consult family and friends, the media or medical encyclopaedias when faced with a medical problem. The internet is consulted by 21 per cent as the first port of call. Some use search engines other than Google and some log on directly to other websites.
Although more — 52 per cent — would see a GP first, the survey shows how important the internet is in informing patients. Friends and family, a traditional source of guidance, were cited by 10 per cent.” (Times of London [thanks, Paul])
And here’s the pitiful part:
As the article goes on to point out, most self-diagnosis is a waste of time. I am not so concerned with the objection that it ‘slows down consultations’ (since by far the greater fault of physicians is that they do not take enough time to address their patients’ concerns and educate them to the extent necessary to make them better informed healthcare consumers) but rather that would-be patients may easily become convinced they have conditions they do not. Even some of the best medically educated among us are prone to that; every medical student is cautioned about ‘medical student syndrome’, in which studying a disease convinces one that one has the disease. The lay public have no defense against that when the information, even if it is not egregious misinformation, comes from the net.
