I often read social media posts where doctors express concern about patients googling and coming to them. Very understandable. There is so much of misinformation on the net that patients could be picking up. Asking questions based on these could be a major waste of time for a doctor. It is a strain on them considering that in India the doctor patient ratio is terrible.
It is another matter that patients could be guided to the right websites to read up more, in order to save a doctor’s time.
If you are a doctor reading this, you would have probably nodded your head as you read the first paragraph. You may think :
“Yes – patients pick up bits and pieces and feel that they know everything
about their disease and treatment”
In this blog post I wish to convey something important to the health professions, using the above example.
The context: QMed has our Learning Website – www.qmedcourses.in – where students or professionals of all health science streams can learn all about literature searching & referencing through nearly 100 short recorded videos. At their pace – they could do their learning during the day, late night, early mornings – whatever works for them
We observed over 1.5 years that while many finished doing the courses and took a lot of help from us through group / individual help sessions that we offer, a larger number either did not start or did little.
To motivate them and to motivate many more who had not joined, we recently started delivering “Mini webinars” every Tuesday and Friday . In our mini webinars we pick up one section of our courses and teach a couple of things covered in it. And we let attendees know how much more they could learn from that section. We do all we can to motivate them to do complete the section.
We observed that many people believe that if they come for these mini webinars, they will learn all that they need to.
I find that very scary
Dear professionals and students. Pause and ponder…..”If you are worried that patients pick up small bits and feel that they know it all, aren’t you doing the same, if you only attend our mini webinars and not do the courses?”
Is it a wonder that patients get satisfied with whatever they find easily? Both sides are just doing what is quick and easy / instant gratification!
