Doctors are adjusting their bedside manner as better informed patients make ever-increasing demands and expect to be listened to, and fully involved, in clinical decisions that directly affect their care. In a study just published in Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, Dr. J. Bohannon Mason of the Orthocarolina Hip and Knee Center in Charlotte, NC, USA, looks at the changes in society, the population and technology that are influencing the way patients view their orthopaedic surgeons. As patients gain knowledge, their attitude to medicine changes: They no longer show their doctors absolute and unquestionable respect.Is this a blessing or a curse? On the one hand, developments in technology have produced more informed patients that do not blindly succumb to the will of their seemingly omnipotent physicians, and can use efficient internet tools in order to research information on signs, symptoms, diagnoses and procedures, statistics, risks, etc. On the other hand, these same factors have resulted in patients becoming more arrogant, disrespectful to doctors, and impetuous in selecting medical treatments. After all, looking up information on the internet is certainly no substitute for the experience and training that a typical physician would have acquired. It is also common that such a savvy patient would be more susceptible to medical marketing and influenced by factors other than evidence-based medicine.
Thoughts?
