what if your doctor pulled out a reference book in front of you?

[Anonymous]

I think this happens more than you realize, for example when your doctor or your kid's pediatrician leaves the room for a few minutes. They aren't always checking up on another patient -- sometimes it's pretty clear they were looking stuff up. I'm totally fine with this. I work in an field where it's impossible for anyone to commit every fact and statistic to memory, and I look stuff up all the time before giving definitive answers. I'm sure medicine is harder, and riskier, than my field. I'm glad our doctors go off and doublecheck information instead of just rattling stuff off the tops of their heads.

[Anonymous]

OP, do you know everything there is to know about whatever field you're in? Probably not. Same goes for doctors.

[Anonymous]

OP here. I am a doctor and I looked up the treatment for a skin thing the other day, but felt awkward doing so in front of the patient. It was a minor common thing, which is partly why I felt awkward, but also, the person was not an English speaker, so we were using a telephone translation service - didn't know how it would sound to hear "your doctor isn't sure how to treat this, so they will look it up and come back."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:or went to look something up on the internet...

would you feel weird? offended? worried they're not that smart?

I would have no issue with it. I'd appreciate that he/she would rather look up the answer than to make up something to appear to "know it all." Read a NYT Magazine article years ago that said, "1/2 of what MDs know is wrong." It's a crap shoot either way. Doctors are humans, not gods.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I am a doctor and I looked up the treatment for a skin thing the other day, but felt awkward doing so in front of the patient. It was a minor common thing, which is partly why I felt awkward, but also, the person was not an English speaker, so we were using a telephone translation service - didn't know how it would sound to hear "your doctor isn't sure how to treat this, so they will look it up and come back."

I am glad you looked it up. Sometimes even common things need to be double checked.

My favorite doctor in the world went and asked his colleagues a couple of things and when they weren't sure he looked it up. He brought the book right into the exam room and searched right in front of me. I loved that he wasn't afraid to look up treatments for my problem.

I had a similar experience at the pediatricians office. DS was three and had blistering from his shoulder all the way down to his fingertips. His doctor wasn't quite sure what it was and got a second opinion from other peds in the office and she used the Internet. Turns out DS had shingles down his arm. She prescribed Tylenol-3 for him because he was in so much pain. She even called a couple of times over the week just to check on him and then I brought him into the office after a week so she could look at how they were healing. The next time I went in to see her she said she had just seen another 3 year old patient with the same presentation of shingles and she was pleased she had the experience with us and that she could diagnosis this other boy easily.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My doctor uses an Ipad. That makes me feel a LOT better....who uses books anymore anyway?

My doc used his iPhone. No rolling of the eyes! It's much more current info, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My doctor uses an Ipad. That makes me feel a LOT better....who uses books anymore anyway?

I don't think most medical journals are accessible on the internet. If my 7th grader isn't allowed to use Wikipedia as a primary source, neither is my doctor!!

You shouldn't comment about things about which you know nothing.

[Anonymous]

One of my favorite columns is that one in the NY Times magazine where a doctor finally puts together the combination of symptoms based on research and an educated guess or internet research or just serendipity.

[ThatSmileyFaceGuy]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My doctor uses an Ipad. That makes me feel a LOT better....who uses books anymore anyway?

I don't think most medical journals are accessible on the internet. If my 7th grader isn't allowed to use Wikipedia as a primary source, neither is my doctor!!

If you don't know then maybe you should look it up.

[Anonymous]

What do you think doctors are doing when they leave the room and you see them on the computer? They all look things up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My doctor uses an Ipad. That makes me feel a LOT better....who uses books anymore anyway?

I don't think most medical journals are accessible on the internet. If my 7th grader isn't allowed to use Wikipedia as a primary source, neither is my doctor!!

You shouldn't comment about things about which you know nothing.

Exactly, when I joked with my docter about his Ipad (my practice also has them) he showed me how it works, they had reference materials, files and a prescription service that autosends to my pharmacy. I think the PDR was also on there.

A little more skilled then Johnny's wikipedia or google.

[Anonymous]

Doctors do this all the time now--because of all the lawsuits, it is actually a cover your ass move. They're not "learning medicine" in front of you...ok, it more like being real thorough.

[Anonymous]

OP, I do it all the time if I am not familiar with a drug, especially if the brand name is different. Most of the time, it is another brand name for the same generic. Sometimes it is a slight variation of another generic. At times, it is a whole new drug or class of drugs that I have never heard of. When that happens I have to read a lot and it can take a while. Sorry if that upsets you, but be careful, the doctors that don't look things up can be irresponsible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I do it all the time if I am not familiar with a drug, especially if the brand name is different. Most of the time, it is another brand name for the same generic. Sometimes it is a slight variation of another generic. At times, it is a whole new drug or class of drugs that I have never heard of. When that happens I have to read a lot and it can take a while. Sorry if that upsets you, but be careful, the doctors that don't look things up can be irresponsible.

Read the whole thread - OP is a doctor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What if a lawyer answered your questions without doing any research? Wouldnt you consider that malpractice?

this is what i was thinking, too. i have quite a few colleagues who do no research before giving clients advice and i think it is irresponsible (probably because they are also frequently wrong). professionals who refuse to do research strike me as arrogant.