It turns out you’re not the only one to Google yourself (don’t lie we’ve all done it). Some doctors have confessed to doing online searches about their patients.
An Australian survey of how doctors use social media found that one in six (16%) had gone online to look for information about a patient. That’s about the same figure for doctors in the US and Canada. That’s awkward – here’s hoping they aren’t seeing all those drinking photos or the sunbaking snaps.
Some of the doctors said they used Google to find out more information about their patients and to discover the “truth” which they said can help them better care for their patients and improve their health. But other doctors admitted they turned to Google simply out of curiosity, voyeurism or habit. Surprisingly, when doctors were asked if it was appropriate for them to look up publicly available information about a patient, almost 43% said no and around 40% were unsure.
All this raises obvious ethical concerns. While in some cases a doctor Googling a patient could be helpful in regards to say, whether a patient that has depression and is crying out for help online, the information doctors could find may also be inaccurate. More than 50% of adolescents admitted to posting false information on social media. And this raises another dilemma. If a doctor sees photos of a patient drinking – and that patient is waiting for a liver transplant – would that change the doctor’s decision to help that patient? Googling a patient also raises concerns about the breach of trust. Would you feel OK going back to your GP if you knew they had been searching for you?
This certainly an issue Hippocrates never faced…