Your doctor could be 'googling' you

The paper lists 10 situations when physicians are justified in "googling" patients

DETROIT – It's something we all do. Whether it's for a date, co-worker or job applicant, the practice of "googling" others has turned the popular search engine, Google, into a verb.

People often use Google to look up symptoms, or drug information, but according to a new study, doctors are now getting in on the action.

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The authors of a new paper in the Journal of General Internal Medicine say the practice is acceptable, only sometimes.

The paper lists 10 situations when physicians are justified in "googling" patients – for example, when they have a duty to warn of possible harm, if a patient's story seems improbable, if information from other professionals calls a patient's story into question, if there are suspicions of abuse or concerns of suicide risk.

In one case, a 26-year-old requested that both of her breasts be removed to prevent breast cancer, although she hadn't undergone genetic testing to see if she was at risk for the disease, and didn't want to. She reported an "almost unbelievable" family history of breast, ovarian and esophageal cancer and had sought the same surgery at other hospitals.

The genetic counselor "googled" her and found that this patient "was presenting her cancer story at lay conferences, giving newspaper interviews, and blogging about her experience as a cancer survivor. Additionally, the patient was raising funds, perhaps fraudulently, to attend a national cancer conference."

"Armed with this information," the authors write, "the genetic counselor informed the surgeon, who subsequently told the patient he felt uncomfortable performing the surgery in the absence of formal genetic and psychological testing."

Conversely, the authors say, web searches can undermine trust among patients and providers. "You have a patient wanting to adopt healthy lifestyles, and the doctor helps him on a course of exercise and non-smoking," Baker explained. "But the doctor ‘googles' him and sees pictures he posted on Facebook smoking a cigar."

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