Patient’s Information Seeking on the Internet before Medical Appointment: Implications for Patient-physician Communication

During last few decades relationship between a patient and a doctor has been changing. Namely their paternalistic communication model has been transforming to partner one. Due to liberalization and emancipation of the society, the development of the Internet and, as a result, giving everyone access to large amount of information, including health, increase in medical literacy the phenomenon “informed patient” has appeared. However, this type of patient and his communication with a doctor are not studied enough. It is complicated for doctors to interact with such patients, as they do not understand their reasons for searching information on the Internet before a consultation and, consequently, their behavior. Based on 12 semi-structured interviews analyzed with the usage of grounded theory, we have considered patient’s motives for searching for medical information on the Internet before an appointment, his communication strategies, doctor's response to his behavior and the connection of the above determinants among themselves and with the outcome of a consultation. We have found that motives of searching for information on the Internet before a consultation are associated with the choice of communicative behavior at a consultation, while patient’s strategies are not the main factor of the influence on doctor’s response and the outcome of the consultation. However, we assumed that the outcome of an appointment is related to the behavior of a doctor. Moreover, in the investigation there are some recommendations that can help to overcome communication barriers between the doctor and the informed patient.