The Empowered Patient Can Present a Challenge to Today’s Physicians

For years now, health care has been shifting into more of a consumer service, with the definition of “patient” evolving. Patients are increasingly interested in having a good experience in health care, taking more ownership of their care, and being more informed and proprietary about the information related to their care.

This trend can exert positive pressure on providers to improve the quality of their service and boost patient communication and info-sharing. But it also poses challenges to providers, as patients want to be more in control of their care and the information that defines it. They are more frequently seeking out info online, which can present a huge issue for doctors who need to counter abundant misperceptions and misinformation. 

Changing expectations of care

Today’s patients have high expectations of their healthcare experience; they expect to be known, respected, and impressed by their providers. The Deloitte 2020 Survey of US Health Care Consumers found that patients most highly value doctors who listen to them, take their time with patients, and communicate clearly.  

Importantly, patients are increasingly thinking more like consumers in other industries — shopping around for the experience they desire instead of passively accepting what their providers offer. This trend is not new; in 2015, more than 50% of respondents to the Deloitte Survey of US Health Care Consumers said that inadequate communication and information-sharing could cause them to switch to a different hospital. The 2018 version of that survey showed that more consumers are searching out quality ratings and pricing tools when deciding which provider to use. 

“By 2040, we expect the consumer to be at the center of the health model,” write Deloitte researchers in discussing the results of the firm’s 2019 Global Survey of Health Care Consumers and 2018 Survey of US Health Care Consumers. “According to our survey results, a meaningful share of consumers are engaging in what we call ‘consumeristic behavior.’”

The trouble with “Dr. Google”

“Consumeristic behavior” goes beyond simply being choosy about what doctor to select. It also encompasses a range of behaviors related to patients looking to take more interest in and control of their care. This includes everything from collecting more personal health information via wearables to being more likely to disagree with their doctors. 

Importantly, it also includes patients researching their own diagnoses and collecting information that pertains to their potential care. While this can be empowering for patients, it can also send them down mistaken pathways full of misinformation and marred by misinterpretation. Tools like ChatGPT may increase the problem as people become more reliant on AI for information without verifying its accuracy. 

Physicians struggle with how to counter this increasing prominence of “Dr. Google” in the exam room.

Dr. Anthony Kaveh, a Stanford and Harvard trained, board-certified anesthesiologist and integrative medicine specialist in the San Francisco Bay Area, was so concerned with the misinformation he was hearing that he became active online to spread accurate information about preparing for and recovering from surgery.

His venture, Medical Secrets, a website, YouTube channel, and TikTok channel, provides accurate answers to people’s questions about anesthesia and related topics, such as “Angry After Anesthesia? Why That Happens,” and what nerve blocks have to do with the opioid epidemic.

“I spend much time online trying to address misinformation that directly hurts patient care, particularly related to surgery and mental health,” he says. “My efforts online are spent publishing videos and articles to make surgery and anesthesia safer, because its complications are not only dangerous but costly.”

He makes an important point: Erroneous or incomplete information is particularly alarming in medicine, as patients’ mistaken assumptions can undermine care and endanger their health. 

How to counter misinformation

There is no easy remedy for the problem of misinformation in healthcare, especially as patients feel increasingly empowered to seek out their own inputs. However, medical providers are uniquely positioned to counter misinformation by lending their trustworthy voices to the dialog about appropriate care. 

“There’s so much potential for the right information coming from trusted sources,” says Kaveh. “It’s difficult to replace experts; more importantly, experts actually have a professional obligation. A physician has a license and we’re at risk of losing that any time we got out in public. We can’t afford to make a mistake in what we say.”

Arming themselves with a variety of ways to communicate with their patients, from TikTok videos to new technologies that allow better information-sharing, providers can make a major contribution to ensuring that patients are accurately informed. And patients can feel confident that these board-certified professionals have their best interests at heart.