Educate your doctor!

Have you ever had the feeling that your doctor (GP or specialist) doesn't really know what he is doing? That he is prescribing you the broad range antibiotics just to avoid a costly diagnostics ... but is this at your detriment? Have you ever felt that, sometimes, you know more than your doctor on some topics ... well ... just because you read a lot on the internet? I don't mean that everything on the internet is correct, but if you cross-check your references, and if you don't rely on a single source or only on what you heard on a forum from patients who have the same symptoms as you do, then you might be able to get a pretty accurate picture of what's going wrong with you. Again, I'm not saying that patients know better than their doctors ... but sometimes, patients spend hours on the net, trying to gather information on their conditions, they compare their symptoms with other patients, they read scientific literature, they go on Pharma companies's website ... and at the end of the day they have an idea of what might go wrong.

The access to medical information, just as any other information (news, politics, economy ...) has never been so easy, thanks to the Web. Social Networks and forums, have allowed people to exchange their opinions and to ask questions to their peers but also to experts. No wonder that people feel empowered and think that they can ask more educated questions to their doctors. Do doctors like that? Well, I'm not sure ... maybe the old school doctors won't like it because they come from a time where what they said was the only truth ... but I hope that the younger generation doesn't mind. After all, the "wisdom of crowd" produced things such as Wikipedia, which are pretty accurate!

Empowered patients can challenge the doctor, and I think that's better like that, because if you don't believe that what's the doctor asks you to swallow is good for you, then you won't take it ... or you'll go ask another doctor, and it will cost more to the community. But if you have a "lively" discussion with your doctor and he convinces you that this pill is good for you, then you'll take the treatment.

I think that the time has come where we need to "educate" our doctors, to let them know that we have information and that we are able to understand diagnostics.

Now a few questions for you:

• Do you feel that you have the right tools to discuss with your doctor?
• Where do you go to find information?
• What else would you like to have?

I'm looking forward to your feedback!

Cheers,

Tibo