ABSTRACT
Introduction: Self-diagnosis usually starts with searchengines like Google, Bing, or Yahoo, which can lead users toconfusing unsubstantiated information and people with urgentsymptoms may not be directed to emergency care. It can alsocreate anxiety and a situation where there is questioning of thetreating physician. In this paper we focus on understandingand evaluating how Internet based search results have affectedpeople’s health opinions and behaviour.Material and methods: An online cross-sectional pilot studywas conducted among 336 individuals. The statistical toolsused to analyse the data was by using Microsoft Excel. Chisquare test was used and p value <0.05 was taken as significant.Results: A significant number of respondents have triedto self-diagnose a perceived illness with a greater averageamongst the medical group and a significant value amongpeople who believed their online diagnosis to be accurate.Searching for health related advice online did make theparticipants feel more anxious with this trend being greater inthe medical population and more polarised within them.Conclusion: Cyberchondria, an adverse effect of thedigital revolution, also has affected the medical system byinterrupting the line of treatment, elevating anxiety levels of theparticipants, undermining the need for emergency care whennecessary and most importantly, taking assistance of symptomchecker sites in lieu of a physician’s advice. In view of this,symptom checker sites should have more accountability byincreasing the involvement of medical professionals.
ABSTRACT
Background: The doctor-patient relationship is the core foundation for healing, care, establishment of trust and an essential part of modern-day medical ethics. The last few decades have seen an exponential growth in the scientific component of the medical field which has led to a strain on doctor-patient relationship. With the growing trend of patients wanting more information from their doctor in order to have a more active role in their health-care, active communication from the physician’s end is needed. Present study aims to find out what doctors over various fields expect out of this relationship.Methods: A cross sectional prospective study was conducted among a total of 49 urban and rural doctors of various specialities in an urban area of Maharashtra using a pre-structured questionnaire. The statistical tools used to analyse the data was by using Microsoft excel software.Results: It was also noted that time spent with patients was less by the specialists as compared with other doctors for all aspects of consultation. On evaluating experience with the duration of consultation, we noted that doctors having more than 30 years of experience gave lesser time for all aspects of consultation as compared to those with lesser experience. A close range, between 45%-57% of all physicians, admitted to answering phone calls during consultations.Conclusions:It is imperative to study doctor-patient interactions since a better relationship results in a more satisfied patient with better treatment outcome.