A 2013 survey by the Pew Research Center found that one in three American adults have gone online to figure out a medical condition. In fact, at least two local doctors suggest that “Dr Google” is also operational in Jamaica.

University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) consultant Dr Hilary Brown, a vascular surgeon, and UHWI consultant urologist, Dr William Aiken, both agree that many patients consult the Internet first, before seeing an actual consultant.

Both consultants, who are attached to the Tony Thwaites Wing of the hospital, shared their experiences.

“For example, the other day one of my patients, who is a cancer patient, decided against a particular treatment because she went on Google and she said she went to all the chat rooms and saw all the problems with the medication,” said Dr Brown. “She never consulted the doctor. She came in and said I’m not taking this treatment, end of argument.”

According to Dr Aiken, the dynamics of the doctor-patient relationship have changed.

“It is no longer acceptable for doctors to tell patients what to do,” explained Dr Aiken. “It’s a partnership with the patient sharing in the decision-making. So patients nowadays are armed with a lot of information. They are very aware.”

Both consultants agree that bedside manner or the way in which doctors handle patients in the doctor-patient relationship as well as the level of communication are critical to delivering quality care, even when patients come with printouts of information found on the Internet.

“And so you cannot treat patients in a sort of dismissive manner,” Dr Aiken explained. “You have to engage them and have an intelligent conversation with them about their illness and respect their decisions.

“I think communicating with a patient has a lot to do with how you make them feel comfortable and how you interact with them and get them to open up to you,” Dr Aiken continued.

Dr Brown noted that in her experience, it is the urban patients who rely on “Dr Google”, whereas patients from the wider cross section of the island continue to rely on doctors for guidance.

“We get a lot of patients who come from St Elizabeth, St Ann, in the rural areas and so on. They listen to you and they don’t Google everything,” shared Dr Brown. “Not that I have a problem with getting information from Google. It is just that everybody’s medical situation is different.

“As a doctor, sometimes you kind of appreciate the back-to-basics approach and as long as you, the patient, have a responsible physician and respect what the physician says, I appreciate that,” Dr Brown said.