Dos and don’ts for patients who consult Dr. Google

A Blog Post from Kevin Pho M.D.

A quote from Dr. Kevin Pho's article: "It is counter-productive when you insist to me that your treatment must follow what you found on the internet. Remember that whoever wrote the articles is usually writing generally. They do not know details of your diagnosis, your medical conditions, exact health situations and such.

The people on the chat forums are usually outliers who either had a particularly great experience or a rough time. You don’t hear from the majority of individuals who had an unremarkable course and don’t waste time writing about it. You may not know that your research is outdated, thanks to new material presented at a conference three months ago. You may not know that, although a treatment is FDA approved, I have personally seen patients identical to you and have a lot of side effects with it.

You may not know of ethnic and geographic differences in response to treatment. Perhaps, a treatment commonly used in Japan may not be as popular in the U.S. because there were negative clinical trials in the past. Considering such examples, it is best to present your research for a discussion rather than dictating what you think it ought to be."