[Internet and the physician-patient relationship--from "thank you" to "why"?]

Abstract

The combination of modern information technology and an increasing awareness if consumer rights in the general population has lead to more demanding patients and new challenges for doctors. By using a questionnaire we explored the extent to which doctors feel that their clinical work is influenced by quality-demanding and well-informed patients, and how the internet influences the communication between doctor and patient. A representative sample of 1,276 Norwegian doctors doing clinical work responded to the survey. A great majority of the doctors expressed that "the informed patient" is becoming an integral part of their regular workday. Three out of four Norwegian doctors had experience with patients bringing internet information to the consultation setting. Most of these doctors found this natural and unobtrusive; a few felt it influenced the doctor-patient relationship in a negative way, while one out of every four doctors found meeting "the informed patient" a positive challenge. One out of seven doctors with e-mail access sporadically receives electronic mail from their patients, a few doctors get such messages often. So far Norwegian doctors are of the opinion that the new information technology has not introduced major changes or created unexpected difficulties in the doctor-patient relationship.