• If you woke up one day with an earache, you could call your doctor’s office for help. Or you could do what the majority of patients do today and Google what to do first. Type “earache” into your Web browser and the results can vary wildly. Search engines can return results saying that an earache can be from the common cold, needing nothing more than over-the-counter remedies. Or it could be a sign of a brain abscess, which requires emergency medical attention.
• Only 7 percent of doctors e-mail their patients. A recent international health survey conducted by the London School of Economics found that only one in four checked the reliability of online health advice. When you consider that nearly two-thirds of patients are consulting the Internet for their medical symptom or condition, that’s a lot of patients accepting what they read on the Internet at face value.
  
• That can be dangerous. If a patient wanted to learn CPR, for instance, a typical Web search would lead to one of more than 50 such instructional videos on YouTube. But according to a recent study from the Medical College of Wisconsin, more than half of those showed improper technique; either the rate or depth of chest compressions was wrong. Worse, just a handful reflected the American Heart Association’s 2010 resuscitation guidelines update, which now advocates “hands only” CPR, without mouth-to-mouth breathing..
• Guiding patients to better online sources of medical information should be a new physician responsibility for the digital age. Not only should doctors expect and be receptive to questions patients raise from Web research, they need to proactively engage patients online in order to dispel falsehoods and guide them to legitimate sites.
• Until then, patients should be vigilant about checking the source of what they read on the Web. Ensure it comes from a reputable institution — such as a hospital, medical school or government agency. How both parties navigate this new paradigm will determine how much the Web and social networks will benefit patients.

Read more at  http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2011/03/guiding-patients-online-physician-responsibility-digital-age.html