By Cheryl G. Murphy, OD
If patients present to you information they have found online, perhaps you are not taking the lead in being the information provider about eye health. Here are ways of initiating ongoing conversations that show you are listening to your patients' needs--and answering their questions so they do not have to look elsewhere.
We have all experienced it. The patient who comes in, sits in our exam chair and whips out printer pages full of symptoms they have Googled. "Dr. Murphy, I'm worried because my grandmother had a retinal detachment, and nearly went blind, and I was doing some research online, and found that seeing flashes of light can be a symptom, and that's happening to me!" Or, may be this: "Dr. Murphy, I think my glasses prescription might be off because I've been getting a lot of headaches. When I Googled 'headaches,' I read that frequent headaches could mean a vision problem."