WebMD lacks the human touch

Nowadays, college is a completely different warfare than it was a decade ago.

We students, wielding laptops as our weapons, are expected to be equipped with the knowledge of search engines and online encyclopedias that lie at our fingertips. But what happens when these convenient websites develop into a necessity so hard to shake that they become assumed into every aspect of our lives?

Perhaps that is a little melodramatic; however, a recent run-in with my apparent failing to have enough Internet-fueled knowledge left me stirred over the reliance on the Web that has recently developed into a severe obsession. I'm not trying to sound like a resentful-of-new-age-technology old woman because certainly I am guilty of spending hours relying on my computer for entertainment, information, communication and countless other things. The main problem is that no longer is Web browsing a convenience, but rather an expectation.

To me, sitting in a doctor's office has always meant that I was about to hear something that I did not previously know. This is probably because, apart from a rare late-night episode of House, I have no interest in anything medically related. So, as a patient, I was always learning new things. I did not pay much attention to my own medical needs or keep up with medical trends. Instead, I relied entirely on my doctor to tell me exactly what to think and do about my health. And, really, that was how I thought it was supposed to be. 

So as I sat in a new doctor's office no more than a week ago, learning that I had been diagnosed with Celiac Disease, I listened to him carefully, hoping that he would describe what exactly that meant or what I should do about it. Instead, he stated that I probably knew all about it, since he was sure I had been doing research online about the disease ever since last week when it had been suggested that I might have it. 

This shocked me. I felt completely helpless and ignorant, not understanding much about this condition and not knowing why, as a patient, such intense expectations had been placed upon me. I was left completely in the dark about this sickness and was not sure how to deal with my lack of knowledge as the doctor carried on speaking in code, for all I knew. 

Back when websites such as WebMD first surfaced, I remember the outrage it evoked from doctors. Feeling it both provided misinformation and propelled hypochondria, from what I had heard, a wall could often form between doctors and their patients as lack of trust between the two arose. As the site became popular, my own opinions of WebMD were quickly formed when the doctor of a close friend of mine banned him from using the site, as his self-diagnoses stood in the way of their doctor-patient interactions.

I understood that doctor's feelings because upon hearing an assumption that I had done online research of some disease, I, too, felt that lack of trust in reverse. Perhaps once I had officially learned about the condition, I would have done some online poking around to see people's opinions or to learn some subsequent information, but never would it have occurred to me to do investigation prior to my actual diagnosis.

What it boils down to is that there is a reason I went to the doctor instead of typing my symptoms into WebMD, crossing my fingers that I had self-diagnosed correctly and followed up with Wikipedia sessions. Trained professionals are in our lives to be humans and to speak to us in the layman's terms that provide us with understanding and emotion. Perhaps certain aspects of our everyday lives are better without actual human interaction, say, checking out at the grocery store, doing our bills, or texting our parents, but for now, I would like to believe that I do not have to learn to be independent from those around me who actually know what they are doing. I hope my doctors in the future will take into account the fact that sometimes it is best to leave the Web out of the MD world.