{"id":1664,"date":"2022-07-21T12:40:21","date_gmt":"2022-07-21T12:40:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drshellysingh.com\/blog\/?p=1664"},"modified":"2025-12-17T11:45:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T11:45:13","slug":"dr-google-friend-or-foe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drshellysingh.com\/blog\/dr-google-friend-or-foe\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr Google &#8211; friend or foe ?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Over the past few years medical practice has changed a lot , and so has the online pursuit of it ! Symptoms , diagnoses , differential diagnoses , randomised control trials and studies are a click of a button away .<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/drshellysingh.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/google_pixabay.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-1661 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/drshellysingh.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/google_pixabay.jpeg\" alt=\"google\" width=\"292\" height=\"207\" \/><\/a>Dr Google is now a reliable reference source , often a first point contact for most patients even before they see us , the clinicians . Most people have already done their research and come up with a diagnosis . Dr Google certainly contains a lot of information , a lot of truth and some fiction too ! The gulf between truth and accuracy and fiction can be huge.<br \/>\nMost people come up with fears of cancer , ectopic pregnancies , miscarriages , perforated intestines due to <strong>IUCDs<\/strong>, <strong>strokes , heart disease<\/strong> and the like even for the simplest complaints that have nothing to do with these ( of course having Dr Google as a partner in this diagnosis ) There are many however who may have made a correct diagnosis with the plethora of medical information available online .<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019d say one thing &#8211; please be educated and aware of whatever ails you ; Google away ! But don\u2019t let Google make your diagnosis . Don\u2019t trouble and stress yourself over humongous ominous diagnoses made with your online friend . Those sleepless nights are just not worth it . Worse still , don\u2019t sit tight over complaints you may have , having being assured by Google that all is well .<\/p>\n<p>It has taken us years and years of study and research , experience and pursuit of medicine to earn our degrees. Let <strong>Google<\/strong> not take that away from us ; let it be an accompanying aid but not your only doctor \u2026.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Talk to your doctor today !<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over the past few years medical practice has changed a lot , and so has the online pursuit of it ! Symptoms , diagnoses , differential diagnoses , randomised control trials and studies are a click of a button away . Dr Google is now a reliable reference source , often a first point contact&#8230; <span class=\"more\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/drshellysingh.com\/blog\/dr-google-friend-or-foe\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&#8594;<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1662,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drshellysingh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drshellysingh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drshellysingh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drshellysingh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drshellysingh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1664"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/drshellysingh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1665,"href":"https:\/\/drshellysingh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1664\/revisions\/1665"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drshellysingh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drshellysingh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drshellysingh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drshellysingh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}