First Do No Harm...

Apparently, doctors don't dig it when you know what's going on. The NYT's "Health and Wellness" blog has a post today based on this Time article by Dr. Scott Haig of Columbia-Presbyterian called "When the Patient is a Googler.". Dr. Haig's point was that it's irritating as all hell for doctors to have to deal with patients who have done tons of background information on their condition and their physicians, often going so far as to read their physicians' CVs and published papers. The "Googler" is that skeptical, over-informed patient, often shopping for specialists the way most people shop for cars: checking out the competition, comparing ratings, and asking highly technical questions.

I'm a bit back and forth on the issue. On one hand, it's incredibly patronizing to hear a doctor bitch and moan about how a patient actually has an acute understanding of her own condition and has informed questions about what's going on. Not being armed with information means that you can't participate in your care, even though you are an adult wholly capable of understanding the Reader's Digest version of what's going on. On the other hand, your physician is an expert on what's going and has probably filtered through much of the information that you can find on the internet. Additionally, if you have false information, you waste time with your physician discussion options that s/he knows aren't real. Any thoughts?