December 15th, 2009 by Nicholas Genes, M.D., Ph.D. in Better Health Network, Humor, Research
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The Efficient MD’s eyes are opened by the nasty thoughts Google Suggest offers up when someone starts typing “Doctors are…” Since Google Suggest lists only common results with which to complete your queries, it seems that the most common thing people think about doctors online is that we’re “overpaid” or “jerks” or “dangerous” or, most commonly, “sadists who like to play god.”
Surveys show people consider doctors to be among the most respected professions. So what gives? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Blogborygmi*
December 7th, 2009 by Joshua Schwimmer, M.D. in Better Health Network, Research
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In November 2009 Hall & Partner published a study sponsored by Google titled “Connecting with Physicians Online.” (Here’s the webinar on YouTube and here’s the PDF of the presentation.)
The study’s aim was to better understand how physicians use the internet in their clinical practices. As you’d expect from a study sponsored by Google, it was particularly focused on how physicians use search.
The study surveyed 411 physicians from a range of specialties (PCPs, endocrinologist, cardiologists, psychiatrist) and with a range of experience (2 – 30 years in practice) on their use of the internet in clinical practice. Additionally, various clinical scenarios were presented designed to mimic actual situations the physicians might encounter. Read more »
This post, Google Study: How Do Physicians Use The Internet?, was originally published on
Healthine.com by Joshua Schwimmer, M.D..
December 4th, 2009 by Dr. Val Jones in Opinion
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As I sit here in a medical innovation conference – I find myself becoming more and more angered by one of the speakers. A man with an MBA and fancy title from PriceWaterhouseCoopers is lecturing us about how doctors are essentially money-grubbing, change-resistant, quality-care avoiding “pains in the you-know-what,” obstructing progress in healthcare reform and blocking technology adoption.
His lack of understanding of the complexity of medical care was breathtaking. And yet, he expresses a sentiment that I’ve witnessed all too many times. Here are a few choice quotations: Read more »
December 1st, 2009 by Bongi in Better Health Network, True Stories
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A comment on my previous post by undead doctor, reminded me of another story about a lift in the old academic building in the old hospital.
Every morning all the registrars, medical officers and interns in the surgery department would meet in the boss’ office for a report on the previous night’s activities and to deal with whatever other administration had to be taken care of. After this meeting the day’s work would begin. The surgery department was on the seventh floor of the academic building. The lifts in that building were fairly small, so we did what any normal surgeon-type would have done in our situation…we tried to see exactly how many people we could cram into the lifts on the way back down after the meeting. As it turns out the lifts couldn’t take more than thirteen. I know this from the time we crammed fourteen into one lift and it got stuck between floor three and floor four. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at other things amanzi*
November 25th, 2009 by Bryan Vartabedian, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Opinion
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Read Seth Godin’s most recent post, The Amateur Scientist. In a way that only Seth can do he tells how our culture has turned us all into authorities. Important stuff.
I couldn’t help but think how this applies to the Internet and our health. Unrestrained access to information has got us all thinking we know more than we do. Godin wasn’t writing about the amateur physician but he might as well have been.
Missing from the black bag of the amateur physician is a tool called clinical judgment – the pivotal substrate necessary to tie together objective clinical information. Clinical judgment is the foundation of good medical decision-making. But you won’t find it on the Internet. It can’t be found in the cloud or the hive. It isn’t free and it’s tough to get. Read more »
