In the recent issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, Harvard oncologist Jerome Groopman and his colleague Pamela Hartzband talk about how the Internet is providing broader access to information, including the kind that has traditionally been available only to physicians. In doing so, the Internet may be changing the patient-doctor relationship:

As physicians, we are struggling to figure out how best to use this technology in the interests of our patients and ourselves. Although the Internet is reshaping the content of the conversation between doctor and patient, we believe the core relationship should not change. A relative recently asked us, “What can you possibly learn from your doctor that is not available on the Internet?” We suspect we’ll hear such radical sentiments increasingly in the future.

The authors make a statement similar to what I’ve written on this blog before: “information and knowledge do not equal wisdom” and to truly empower individuals you need the wisdom of an expert:

… it is too easy for nonexperts to take at face value statements made confidently by voices of authority. Physicians are in the best position to weigh information and advise patients, drawing on their understanding of available evidence as well as their training and experience. If anything, the wealth of information on the Internet will make such expertise and experience more essential.

So is all the information on the Internet empowering us as much as we think it is or is it creating what can be called an information bubble?

Writing for the Harvard Business Review Blog, Umair Haque talks about how the Internet has created what he calls a “social media bubble:”

Despite all the excitement surrounding social media, the Internet isn’t connecting us as much as we think it is. It’s largely home to weak, artificial connections, what I call thin relationships.

Call it relationship inflation. Nominally, you have a lot more relationships — but in reality, few, if any, are actually valuable. Just as currency inflation debases money, so social inflation debases relationships.

I think a parallel phenomenon on the Internet is creating an information bubble that debases expertise. As a patient, it’s relatively easy to get a thin understanding of the facts about a particular disease by surfing the Internet but when it comes to serious health concerns, such information can lead to unwarranted patient-anxiety and even bad health outcomes. There is a lot of medical information about specific diseases on the Internet, some good and some bad. For a nonexpert, it’s not always easy to differentiate the two. Even if one finds a reliable source, it’s not always easy to digest the information and wrong conclusions can be made.

My recommendation is to generously use the Internet for health information but before you act on any advice or self-diagnose, “please talk to your doctor” or if you have a physician like me, email him.

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