Questions From Patients for Doctors Online

Good medical advice isn’t easy to come by. Sometimes you need an urgent response to something. Let’s say you’ve had a headache for over a day; what do you do? The best option would be to go see a doctor, of course, but that’s not always what happens. We’re left thinking, “It’s just a headache anyway, it’s not worth it.” So, we end up suffering for a few days until the symptom resolves on its own or becomes more severe, forcing us to go see a physician. Some people choose to look up their symptoms online, which, most of the time, isn’t a good idea. The website may contain wrong or missing information. You don’t know who wrote the info you’re reading online. It’s also impossible for a website to generate a diagnosis based on the little information you give it, or else doctors would be out of business. Basically, the best way to answer your medical question is to ask a doctor.

Here at FindATopDoc, we’ve launched a new features that let you post your medical question on our website to be answered by licensed physicians. Patient questions are valuable and important, so it’s vital they be addressed. The whole process is very simple. Neither the asker nor the answering doctors pay or receive any money; this is giving concerned patients free medical advice. Of course, it’s not logical to expect the full range of services you can get at a clinic, but this is as close as it gets. You have a symptom? Doctors will tell you if it’s severe or not. They’ll tell you if you need to go see a doctor straight away or if you can wait a little while to see how things develop.

To access this service, just visit findatopdoc.com/questions. There, you can post your medical questions and doctors will do their best to answer them according to the information you’ve given. People are already trying out the service and loving it. For instance, a concerned parent could be worried about their child suffering from constipation. By posting the question, doctors will assess the situation and tell them what to do. Answering doctors may suggest a visit to the hospital or clinic, which is, of course, always the safest option. Another amazing part of the service is that, on the right, you’ll notice a sidebar that will show you physicians in the specialty you’re asking about who are in your area. This will make it much easier for you to visit them instead of having to look up pediatricians or other specialists in your area. The list includes all licensed doctors in the United States who have offices nearby, not just those affiliated with FindATopDoc.

 This is as good as it gets. What other alternative for free medical advice can you get? Of course, if a close relative or friend is a doctor, you might consult them, but what if you don’t know any doctors? You’ll end up looking up your symptoms on the internet. This has many drawbacks. For instance, you can’t always trust the information you find on the internet. Unless it’s a website affiliated with a famous hospital, you cannot know if you should trust the information you’re reading. Literally anyone can start up a website and write medical information. Wrong information can worry you and make you believe your condition is serious and that you need to see a doctor straightaway, even if it actually won’t do you any harm, except for the worry, of course. The other alternative is it can make you think your condition is mild when it’s actually something serious. Imagine having a serious condition and not going to see a doctor because what you read online made you believe it was nothing. The condition would only get worse, and by the time you visit a doctor, it could be too late.

Even if you’re reading symptoms on a trusted website, you still have no way of using that information. If medicine was as easy as reading symptoms online and diagnosing, then treating yourself, everyone would be a doctor and it wouldn’t be a profession anymore. It’s even worse when you start treating yourself using methods you found online for a diagnosis you picked yourself based on what you read. Treating yourself could cause a lot more harm than doing absolutely nothing. For these reasons, seeking trusted medical help is very important.

This feature is done to help people everywhere. Some people don’t have insurance and can’t afford going to a hospital or clinic. Naturally, they wouldn’t run to them with every sneeze, cough, or headache. So, what do they do? What if they’re worried? They can simply visit the website, ask about their symptoms, and be informed whether or not they should urgently go to a doctor. Another issue that comes to mind is living away from a hospital or clinic. Put yourself in the shoes of a mother who is worried about her child and lives a couple of hours from a hospital. This is a reality some people face. By asking a question, she might get information on what to do while she makes the trip to the hospital. She could get information that might save her child’s life.

It also saves people from the tiring process of looking up medical information on the internet. There’s a circulating joke on the internet that if you look up having a headache, you’ll end up thinking you have brain cancer. At least this would get you to visit a doctor. What’s worse is self-diagnosing and self-treating, as these can result in a great deal of harm. One example of the damage self-treatment can do is the simple act of giving aspirin to a child to lower their fever. Giving aspirin to a child with a viral infection can result in brain inflammation and liver failure.

Doctors who participate to answer questions can also benefit greatly from this. Some physicians are in love with helping people and became a doctor for that reason. They can help so many people through this feature. It’s also a great way to take a break from medicine without being entirely separated from it. Even if you can’t do anything, you can reassure a patient or tell them to go to a hospital immediately. This still counts as making a difference.

Through answering questions, doctors can also get great exposure. A doctor won’t always be answering questions from people who live nearby who are likely to visit his or her clinic, but will be putting his or her name out there. Answering questions for free shows you care about helping people, and word will spread. If you give helpful advice, it also shows you’re very good at what you do. The sidebar on the right will also benefit doctors, as it directs patients towards them when patients who don’t know about nearby physicians might simply go to a hospital.

This is one of the best features and medical services on the internet, as it fills a lot of gaps and fulfills a role that never existed before. There are a lot of benefits for all those participating, including the patients and doctors. The days of worrying in silence and reading misguided information are over. You don’t need to compromise, especially when it comes to your health. No more settling for vague symptoms and wrong data. If you have a medical question, seek out the professionals at www.findatopdoc.com/questions.