If you’re looking for sure-fire way to get your doctor to snort and roll his/her eyes, start a sentence with “I looked it up on the Internet…”
And by the time you get to “… and it turns out I have a rare form of terminal acne”, he/she will be rolling on the floor disabled by derisive laughter.
Doctors believe, not without justification, that the Internet is a cesspool of medical misinformation. But we use it because it’s there. It may take two years to get an appointment with a bricks and mortar dermatologist, but there’s no shortage of acne experts ready with free advice online 24/7.
So the news that Google is testing a program that allows you to talk to a real doctor via online video is more than good news for people with spots.
It looks like the next big thing.
Let’s see. You have a boo-boo. You go to your GP, wait for at least an hour over the appointed time. You finally get into the examining room, and if it’s a complicated boo-boo, he refers you to a specialist. You wait two months, and then go see the specialist, who sends you for a bunch of tests. Then someone books the follow-up visit.
If you’re lucky and you’re still alive, maybe you’ll get treated for the boo-boo, and maybe relief will follow. Accumulated time: feels like forever.
So imagine tapping “boo-boo” into Google, and connecting to a medical expert who diagnoses your problem right away, just by looking at it. “That’s a boo-boo all right.” He sends you to a pharmacy to get the medicine. Relief! Accumulated time: hardly any.
Of course, there are many ailments that actually require tests and deeper exams, but think of all the anxiety diseases a Google doctor program could address, freeing up real health care for people who need it.
In the typical Google manner, this program was launched without fanfare. Some guy tapped “knee pain” into Google, and got an offer to connect with a doctor for free (for now). The way Google works, it could well be closed without fanfare by the time you read this piece.
But it’s such a good idea that you wonder why it hasn’t happened sooner. And if Google doesn’t disrupt healthcare, there are rumours that Facebook is working on its own healthcare program. All your friends could “like” your prognosis.
As with so many other industries that have been rendered obsolete by technology – just like that – there’s a sense of inevitability about this. I’m sure there are at least a million reasons why the medical professionals and governments that fund them will decide that online doctor programs are bad for your health. But there are too many ways to connect over the Internet and circumvent the bureaucracy. It will happen.
Talk about Doctors Without Boundaries.