All posts tagged medicine

The World Of An Offline Physician

There are more and more articles surfacing on physicians’ online presence and how doctors could become irrelevant with staying away from online platforms and social media. In a time when almost every patient comes to the office with diagnoses printed out from Google, when you have to consider providing patient health record online, when your colleagues get the latest news in medicine on their smartphones while you wait for the latest journal to be published – I don’t quite understand why anyone has to be convinced that online presence and being up-to-date with the latest mobile technologies are crucial.

But let’s get back to the examples. It is a well-known fact that patients Google their symptoms. They look for treatment options and find other people with similar conditions online. They connect and exchange information. It is also not hard to imagine how much false information could be published online. The accurate data could be misinterpreted, misplaced or in some cases accuracy is not there to begin with. Chances are that your patient is going to come to the office with numerous questions about what he/she read online. Some of them will be convinced that online information is sacred and always right on point. If you are not familiar with the medical information published online, how are you going to prove your point? How are you going to respond to the patient asking about a treatment that thousands of people blog about but you have never heard of.

How are you going to keep up with your colleagues when in your coffee break they talk about the newest medical application that allows them to look up drug interactions in a few seconds? How do you stay on top of your life long studying if only a fraction of the information is available to you because you refuse to add online content to your sources? How are you going to recommend easy to use medical applications to monitor health to your patients when you still can’t use the application store and never downloaded a health app?

How are you going to compete with other practices that connect with patients online. How are you going to keep up with doctors who have hundreds of followers and fans on Twitter and Facebook. How are you going to get hired when the other applicants have a detailed LinkedIn page and connected with their future boss online a long time ago.

I’m not saying you know less as a doctor without an online presence or a smartphone. I’m only saying that your knowledge can’t be used as effectively simply because you don’t use the channels that patients use. Your knowledge has to be communicated to benefit patients, therefore you have to go where patients are. They are surfing the net, using health apps and social media platforms to get the most valuable medical information. Also, you have to stay connected with your fellow physicians who more and more go online to stay informed and make their careers a successful one.

(Source: MedCityNews.com)

What If There Were No Medical Case Studies?

A weird and very surreal idea came to me the other day reading a post on Shrink Rap about doctors writing about their medical experiences and patients. The article quotes another blogger arguing that there is no ethical way for doctors to write about their patients.

What if we agree with this idea? What if that was the consensus from the beginning? If it’s unethical to write about medical experiences, treatments and diseases, than how do we move forward? How do we learn about new conditions and possible treatments?

If writing about patients is unethical, than we have nothing to talk about. Because there is no medical profession, there is no health information. Would that mean we have to get rid of all the old medical books too that contain case studies? Would we have to censor medical journals as well?

I do agree that patient privacy comes first. I also agree that in the era of online health information there are certain new steps that have to be taken to provide complete data privacy. But why would it be beneficial for patients if doctors couldn’t learn from their cases? Why would it have to be a violation of privacy if a doctor writes a detailed essay about a rare condition? There are certain methods to make sure that the patient stays anonymus.

So before we throw out the idea and tradition of medical studies we should realize that privacy and learning from cases are not opposing ideas. There are ways to serve the patients without exposing too much.

(Source: Shrink Rap)

Technology In The Everyday Life Of Physicians

No matter how far doctors are in their medical career, technology is the most talked about topic in their everyday life. After reading so many articles on different inventions and devices, this shouldn’t be surprising. Still, it amazes me how deeply technology is integrated in healthcare.

This past weekend I witnessed many conversations about the adoption of various technologies in medicine. Starting at the very beginning of medical school where the education office no longer provides a paper sheet with all the class information on it. It is easier, faster and not to mention more eco-friendly to post the students’ schedule in the form of a Google calendar. This way they can sync that with their iPhones, maybe setting alarms for the most important project deadlines and lectures. That is if they actually attend, which they are no longer obligated to in some cases. They can stream a class as a webinar if they decide, that it’s more comfortable taking notes from the “comfort” of their dorm room.

Later on future doctors can appreciate technology even more. They are not only able to quickly look up data on their smartphones just before presenting a case to the fellow but their chances get better at getting higher scores on exams. When it comes to the boards, no student wants to fail because of their lousy handwriting. Well, these days they don’t have to worry about that. More and more hospitals switch to electronic charts. It is beyond useful when stressed out medical students take their exam. Because let’s face it: who has time to worry about perfect letters when they only have 15 minutes to take a patient’s history and do a physical exam.

But we have to be fair. Technology is not only about shiny new devices, saving time and finding useful short cuts. It’s about spending a lot of money too. Let’s say a doctor opens up a private practice. Back in the day they only had to worry about hiring a responsible staff and dealing with tons of paperwork. That was already enough to scare away a lot of people. But now in addition to all that, private doctors have to keep up with the newest technologies also. That means a lot of extra studying and constantly being up-to-date. Which is not only hard on the doctor but also on his/her bank account.

You can keep listing pros and cons for hours, but it doesn’t change the fact that technology is a crucial part of medicine. And not just in theory, but in the smallest details of everyday life.

All posts tagged medicine

What If There Were No Medical Case Studies?

Technology In The Everyday Life Of Physicians

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