Over a third of adult patients search their symptoms before presenting to an emergency department and this has a positive impact on their interaction with their doctor.
That’s the finding of a new study, undertaken by Dr Anthony Cocco, a resident at St. Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne who intends to pursue emergency medicine as a speciality, and published in the Medical Journal of Australia.
A 51-item purpose-designed survey was administered to 400 adult patients who presented to emergency departments at St. Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne and Austin Hospital between 1 February and 31 May 2017. A total of 196 (49.0%) indicated that they regularly used the internet for health-related information; 139 (34.8%) reported searching for information on the problem for which they had presented to the ED.
Searching had a net positive effect for 150 searchers (77.3%); a net negative effect was reported by 32 searchers (16%), while no effect was reported by 14 participants (7%). A total of 132 of 195 participants (67.7%) agreed or strongly agreed that searching helped them communicate more effectively with health providers; 155 respondents (79.5%) agreed or strongly agreed that searching helped them better understand their health provider during the consultation; 155 (80.7%) agreed or strongly agreed that searching allowed them to ask more informed questions. However, 76 respondents (40%) agreed or strongly agreed that gathering information from the internet made them worried or anxious.
A total of 153 respondents (78.9%) indicated that internet-derived health information never or rarely led them to doubt their diagnosis or treatment; 174 (91.1%) had never or rarely changed a treatment plan advised by a doctor because of online health information.
Dr Cocco, who first presented his results at the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine’s (ACEM) Annual Scientific Meeting in Sydney last year, wrote: “Searching for e-health information had a positive impact on the doctor-patient relationship, particularly in patients with increased e-health literacy. It was unlikely to cause patients to doubt their diagnosis or affect treatment adherence.”
“We therefore suggest that doctors should acknowledge and be prepared to discuss e-health searches with adult emergency patients.”
Dr Cocco works at St. Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne. His fellow authors included:
- Rachel Zordan, Senior research fellow, St. Vincent's Hospital Melbourne
- Fellow of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (FACEM) David Taylor, Professor of Emergency Medicine, Austin Health
- FACEM Dr Jennie Hutton, Emergency Physician, St. Vincent's Hospital Melbourne
- Tracey Weiland, Associate Professor of Population Health, University of Melbourne
ACEM President Dr Simon Judkins said: “I congratulate Dr Cocco and all the team involved in this study. Research is one of the pillars of ACEM, as we believe in high quality data analysis, evaluation and evidence which informs and supports patient outcomes.”
Andre Khoury
ACEM Public Affairs Manager
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0498 068 023
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