Trumblog

Two recent studies point out a disconnect of trust between doctors and patients and the material that they find online.

Doctors like online product information, but don’t trust it.

79% of doctors want to get product information online, but only 27% of doctors trust the information on official pharma company websites. Only 15% liked to get information from sales reps, which explains why I’m seeing less and less of sales rep support projects, and 6% like journal ads. This is all according to Therapeutics Daily reporting on a study by OnMedica, but I can’t find the source.

Patients like online product information and do trust it.

This is in-line with what I’ve heard so many times from patients in focus groups that they absolutely trust pharma company websites because “if it wasn’t the truth they’d get sued.” A Harris Poll is saying that 86% of Americans going online to find medical information find the information that they find reliable.

Other interesting information from the poll is;

• 25% of online patients use the internet to find healthcare information often,

• they look for healthcare information online 4.8 times a month,

• most, 89%, say that they find what they are looking for,

• just under half, 47%, discuss the information they find online with their doctors, and

• about half, 49%, go online to look for information as a result of discussions with their doctors.

Take a look again at those last two bullets. Just about half of online patients talk about health information that they find online with their doctors and soon after meeting with their non-internet-trusting doctor almost half of patients return to the internet for more information. Based on the other data in this poll (a quarter of online patients going online for healthcare information a little less than 5 times a month and mostly finding information that they want) clearly the drive from information on one’s medical situation to the web is pretty profound. It’s also clear that patients don’t care (or notice) that their doctors by and large do not trust the information that is found online.

Why don’t doctors trust online health information?

Does their concern about the patient forums and herbal cures cloud their feelings about Pharmaceutical company sites, WebMD, Revolution Health, etc?

Do they dislike their authority being challenged by a patient who has more time to research a specific disease state then they will?

Do they not trust their patients to make informed decisions based on their doctor’s recommendation and that patients do not believe everything that they read online or off?

I don’t know, but I’d like to find out because it’s my job to facilitate the doctor patient relationship in order to provide better care for patients. Patients need to have substantive conversations with their doctors and the only way to do that it to come to the appointment with information to ask the right questions and understand the answers. The tools for patients to learn and support their own care are available online and they are turning to them. How can I help doctors to accept that this is happening and take advantage of the opportunity that it provides.

Patient Literacy Programs

Giving patients the tools that they need to find trustworthy health information online; teaching them to looking for sources, validate facts with corroborating information, consider drug interactions, etc. seems like an obvious first step. I know of programs to ensure that the information that a doctor provides patients is understood, but how about working with patients to help them understand the information that they find outside the doctor’s office?

Acknowledging that patients will turn to internet resources to deal with their own health care or that of their loved ones and making that experience better and result in information that doctors can trust to work with at the next visit would seem like an enormous boon. What do you think? What tools have you found to bridge this gap?