Some patients find Internet-based health information empowering, others find it overwhelming.

Either way, it’s here to stay and patients are going to have to get used to the growing amount of medical information available to them.

The NY Times has a nice article giving patients suggestions as they navigate through the web:

The daily bombardment of news reports and drug advertising offers little guidance on how to make sense of self-proclaimed medical breakthroughs and claims of worrisome risks. And doctors, the people best equipped to guide us through these murky waters, are finding themselves with less time to spend with their patients.

Physicians need to accept the fact that more patients are coming to them more informed about their disease. It’s up to us to help them interpret the information and to use their newfound empowerment to guide them to a mutually agreeable treatment and diagnostic course.

Many doctors are reluctant to do this. I’m saying there soon isn’t going to be a choice, we better get used to it.