COMMENT
Visiting Doctor Google sometimes comes first.
I have a confession to make: I see Dr Google far, far more than I see my GP.
And for that, my GP should be grateful. She doesn’t get the litany of questions that plague someone who doesn’t want to admit she’s probably a borderline hypochondriac.
It all goes into the great internet oracle, from persistent headaches to sore muscles after exercising (it’s called being out of shape, if you’re wondering) to a strange bump on my leg that won’t go away. And it’s just not me I worry about – I Google my husband’s symptoms, I research operations my father has had to have and have even been known to check up on my cat’s condition.
A lot of these symptoms just seem way too silly to say out loud to another human, especially a doctor who deals with legitimate medical emergencies on a daily basis.
It’s not something I like to admit to, and certainly not something I ever thought I’d write about, but it’s nice to know that I’m definitely not alone.
Apparently one in 20 of the 100 billion monthly searches on the internet giant related to health and medical information.
That’s a lot of panicked searches. So many that Google – never one to let an opportunity pass unexploited – has this week announced it will have pre-vetted fact boxes and illustrations for US users searching 400 of the most common medical queries, for terms such as tonsilitis and measles.
Cue the outrage. People turning to Google for information when they should be trusting a professional, imagine that. It’s as though critics have never heard of a medical dictionary.
Is it really so bad that we turn to Google for answers rather than bothering our already stretched-to-the-limits medical practitioners with another time-waster?
Despite lots of evidence online to the contrary, most people aren’t idiots. They know how to apply common sense. It’s harmless to Google “what do I do if I’ve sprained my ankle?”, but most rational people won’t type “my femur bone is sticking out of my leg, should I see my doctor?”
And we all know that our feverish sniffles are most likely just man flu that will clear up after a day or two on the couch, and not the latest strain of an antibiotic resistant superbug.
Googling odd symptoms can put your mind at ease that it’s not something you need to panic about. Nevermind the money you save on a GP visit, with $100 set to become to norm.
If your symptoms all point to a serious medical condition, then we all know we should go to the doctor. Just because we don’t doesn’t meant that Google is to blame. People have been avoiding treatment long before the internet came along. As Monty Python’s Black Knight says: “It’s just a flesh wound.”
For most people, Googling real – or imagined – ailments isn’t about envisaging the worst possible outcome. Most of the time, you just want to know that everyone suffers from dandruff at some stage or has a weird rash that just won’t go away. Or that if you’re “tired all the time” and “lethargic” you probably just need to go to bed before midnight a few times a week.
Doctors must hate patients who arm themselves with a PhD from Google before appointments. But just imagine the crap they’d hear about without it. Of course Dr Google can’t replace the important roles doctors play in our lives, but it can cut the crap doctors have to deal with.
Leigh Tonkin is a Herald journalist