Partners in Care:
Searching For Answers
by Monalisa Tailor, MD
Move over WebMD, enter the patient.“ So, when I put my symptoms into Google / Chat GPT / etc., it said this stuff.”
But often the patient is not this direct. The patient sounds nervous, his voice a bit shaky, stumbling over the medical jargon on his scribbled note. I cringe at the online search and what AI has told them. It makes me question if I’ m doing what I need for them. However, it’ s not about me. It’ s about the patients. They are trying to understand. They are trying to make sense of their symptoms.
Disclosure before we deep dive: I am not always good at this. Sometimes they get my frustration if we are hung up on some detail and the discussion can’ t move forward. We can get through that; honesty is helpful here.
At the start of the visit, I always ask the patient if I can look at their list. This gives me an idea of their concerns and what they want to address. A lot of their questions may overlap with mine, but they just don’ t know it yet. When I can tell they’ ve done a very thorough job researching on the internet I like to say,“ You’ re really worried about this symptom. Let’ s talk through what you are feeling and let’ s work on getting to the bottom of it together.” This helps me do the deep dive into getting more of my history questions answered about their concern and then being able to obtain an appropriate workup. Sometimes, their internet info has convinced them they need one particular test, and you know as well as I do, that those tests the ChatGPT may suggest may not actually be legitimate.
I go back to the history and have to do some redirection, and ask
clarifying questions. In the end, I might consider ordering a couple of additional lab tests from their research, which is OK. I found that this strategy works better than me dismissing the patient and their concern. Anytime we dismiss the patient, or make it sound like we’ re not taking their concern as seriously, can encourage them to go back to the misinformation pipeline. That’ s where these health influencers and these YouTube personalities capitalize on patients who don’ t know enough to disagree with the sales pitch. This is how patients end up spending $ 30 apiece for a supplement they found on the internet because they weren’ t being told something. In some cases, they’ ll end up with multiple supplements spending hundreds to thousands of dollars. They won’ t necessarily feel better, and it won’ t fix their issue, but they feel like they’ re doing something.
I know that becomes the hardest part when the patient is in the exam room with you. You want to share your knowledge with them. You want to be like,“ What this thing that you found?! It is ridiculous from a knowledge standpoint.” However, that would come off antagonistic rather than supportive. This is why approaching it from the concerned, open-minded viewpoint, that you want to work with the patient, will help you gain traction.
One of my favorite doctors, Dr. Mary Barry, always said there’ s a benefit to therapeutic listening. In this case, your therapeutic listening will help keep you and your patient on the same page, and it will also help prevent your patient from falling into some misinformation traps on the Internet. Be open-minded, be willing to listen and be willing to hear their greatest concern. It pays off in dividends.
Dr. Tailor is a practicing internal medicine physician at Norton Community Medical Associates: Barret.
November 2025 9