THE PRESIDENT of the Irish Medical Organisation has reported a "considerable increase" in the number of patients researching illnesses on the internet before seeing a doctor.
Warning of the limitations of online self-diagnosis, Dr Martin Daly said that while the internet was a useful tool, it was important that any information be interpreted by a professional medic.
"In many cases patients will attend their doctor with very detailed information taken from the internet, but it is the doctor's duty and professional responsibility to explain and interpret that information and guide the patient to a joint decision," he said.
"There has been a considerable increase in the number of patients attending with information off the internet, in relation to all forms of medical illness."
The number of websites offering medical diagnoses has increased dramatically in recent years.
Dr Daly said while doctors sometimes found it useful to direct patients to authoritative websites, there were limits to what the internet could offer.
"Doctors must be careful that they direct patients to well-recognised websites and that they are prepared to help their patients to interpret information they garner from the internet," he said.
"Doctors should not feel pressured by information brought to them from the internet by patients. In a significant proportion of cases, either there has been a misinterpretation of correct information or there's information disseminated on the internet purporting to be gold-standard information when in fact it's not."
A similar warning came from the Medical Protection Society in Britain, which took the occasion of Google's 10th anniversary to warn of the dangers of self-diagnosis.
Dr Su Jones, its senior medicolegal adviser, said: "More than one billion people worldwide now have access to the internet, and eight out of 10 use Google to find websites, giving patients a greater opportunity to explore the possibility of self-diagnosis."
