The advent of the computer and cyberspace technology has led to the explosion of, and instant access to, seemingly endless volumes of information in the various fields of human endeavor, including in medicine, via the internet.
This modern “virtual library” on the Web, accessible to practically anyone, any place, in the world where the internet exists, has leveled the playing field for people around the globe. Practically any information is instantly available, in different languages, to any individual within a second or two on the World Wide Web, with a simple click of the mouse. I dare say, the world today is, metaphorically speaking fundamentally flat, as far as the access to data about science, medicine, art, technology, and other human enterprises, are concerned.
However, as can be expected, progress and advances in our civilization also inherently bring with them some possible “negative side-effects,” or potentially “unfavorable consequences,” for some of people.
An example of this includes the birth of “internet addicts,” not only among young children and teenagers, to the dismay of some parents, but even among those in their sixties and older, to the dismay of some spouses. Indeed, computer works, surfing the net, exploring the Web, navigating the cyberspace, are addicting. I can personally relate to this, because I myself am hooked, and have been a certified internet addict for years. My personal computer is my constant companion and I am most dependent on it. The first thing I do when I wake up each morning is to turn on my notebook, even before turning on the coffeemaker. I never leave home without my laptop. I feel “naked” and insecure without my notebook. It is my security blanket, my ectopic brain, my library, and my connection to the world out there. As a cardiac surgeon and a health columnist, I find the internet a most valuable tool for me.
Cyber-navigation has also created a group of individuals who are known as “Cyberchondriacs.” Like the hypochondriacs many of us know or have heard or read about, “cyberchondriacs” are the internet-driven version of these “self-diagnosticians.” They are people who imagine and actually believe to have whatever illness, or medical complications, they read about on the net. Indeed, as the old adage says, “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.” More so among those with insecurity and fertile imagination. The obsession for self-diagnosis on the internet has led to the rise of “cyberchondriacs,” who are often misled by some inaccurate online information or by their erroneous interpretation of medical data on the Web. Consulting a physician can certainly help these individuals sort out facts from fiction, truth and falsehood, and reality from perception.
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Touring some major cities in Ireland and Scotland a couple of weeks ago, on my way for an induction ceremony in the Bohemian Paradise in Prague, I saw the large headline on the November 10th issue of METRO, a newspaper in Edinburgh, which said “Doctors urged to Google for cures.”
Ever since search engines came into our midst, many physicians have been surfing the net and taking advantage of the power of the Web in keeping themselves abreast with the state-of-the-art medical information about diseases, their epidemiology, diagnosis, complications, and treatments, from renowned medical institutions in the United States and around the world.
After long years of medical schooling, internship, residency training, and optional fellowship, which training could range between 12 to 16 years, the physician should be medically competent. With the rapidly evolving advances in medical science and technology, the internet is playing a major supplementary role in providing continuing medical education for the physician in his/her quest for the latest and the best in patient care.
While the implication of that headline might inadvertently suggest incompetence on the part of the physician as the driving force to Google for diagnosis or for cure, the truth is obviously far from it. As a matter of fact, it is the exact opposite. The competent medical practitioner is the one who knows his/her limitations in this era of rapidly exploding advances and progress in medical science. The good physician is the one who tends to be more of a “perfectionist,” more exacting, more concerned, more meticulous, and more curious, one who wants to learn to the max, in order to provide excellence in the diagnosis, treatment and total care of the patient. This is the quality physician we all want for ourselves. The more our physician knows, the better it is for us, his patients, regardless of his method of choice for acquiring the most current and relevant cutting-edge medical information needed for our care.
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Philip S. Chua, MD, FACS, FPCS, Cardiac Surgeon Emeritus in Northwest Indiana and chairman of cardiac surgery from 1997 to 2010 at Cebu Doctors University Hospital, where he holds the title of Physician Emeritus in Surgery, is based in Las Vegas, Nevada. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the Philippine College of Surgeons, and the Denton A. Cooley Cardiovascular Surgical Society. He is the chairman of the Filipino United Network – USA, a 501(c)(3) humanitarian foundation in the United States. Email:[email protected]
