"I think patients are savvy enough to realize everything they read on the Internet is not the gospel and they should take it with a grain of salt," Charlotte, N.C., internist Dr. Marshall Silverman said at a public forum last week, the Charlotte Observer reports.

Other physicians are not so forgiving when it comes to patients sharing with their doctors information they find online. "Often we spend time basically discrediting inaccurate information they read online before they got to the doctor's office," Dr. Jim Starman, a resident in orthopedic surgery at Carolinas Medical Center, said. "People need to be aware the information they're getting may not be objective and it may not be complete, and it's no substitute for talking with their doctor."

And they are turning to the Internet more than ever to find health information, according to a national survey cited by Raleigh, N.C., marketing professional Karen Albritton. Consumers named Google searches the second most-influential source of health information, behind only conversations with their doctors, according to the Observer.

"Some physicians are embracing this, but some of them are frustrated," Albritton reportedly said. "Some of them say, 'I don't have time to bat down all of this misinformation [patients] are getting online.'"

Consumers, it seems are getting mixed signals from their healthcare providers. Some present at the Charlotte event suggested that physicians engage patients on Facebook and other social networks, but that approach, too, is fraught with hazards.

Carolinas HealthCare System spokeswoman Katie Ratchford reported that the organization does not oversee Facebook pages maintained by its physicians, but said that physicians generally are too busy to chat with patients on the health system's own Facebook page.

Gayle Tuttle, representing Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, wondered who would compensate physicians for conversing with patients online if it took away from in-person consultation time. (Here's a hint: How about a payer, like, say, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina?) Tuttle said that some might be more amenable to paying physicians for telemedicine services rather than web-based chats.

To learn more:
- check out this Charlotte Observer story

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