The world of healthcare has been revolutionized by the power of the internet. Social media platforms have become the vital links between people who are suffering with health issues, both mental and physical, and the help which they need. The health and care is now nearly synonymous with the power of the internet’s vast amount of information available at the click of a button. If a person is struggling with an illness, or simply a symptom/condition, they can go online and find answers and help virtually instantly by looking up their symptoms. Online platforms such as WebMD and Healthline act like health journals publishing articles on how to better one’s health and find relief with existing conditions. They can breakdown a disease or condition to the core, including classifications of symptoms, diagnosis, prevalence, usual duration of time, and common treatments/medicines needed. These are powerful tools in self diagnosis. The Mayo Clinic, a worldly renowned hospital and medical institution, now runs a powerful online platform like Healthline and WebMD, all armed with a staff of medical editors cross checking the facts and science. Other than effortlessly connecting sufferers to answers, patients to doctors, the internet also allows for people to be able to reach out to others who are struggling the same way they are. People suffering from chronic illnesses often feel as though they are alone. On Reddit and other forum platforms people can find and join communities to feel like they are not alone. Forums provide people struggling with advice from others going through the same thing.
The setting is going to in a dimly lit bar right near a hospital. The bar is nearly empty just two doctors tired after a long day’s work and the bartender. The doctors are both completely drained. One is older and one is younger, but are good friends and generally agree on most methods and medical opinions. They both order an Old Fashioned, as they greet the bartender they have known since their days of being interns, through their residency, and fellowships. After much conversation, asking each other about how their day was they begin to discuss specific cases they are working on together, both being general surgeons not tied to one field in medicine. They gossip a little bit about the other doctors they encounter on a day to day basis. The whole setting is extremely Grey’s Anatomy-esque. As a moment of silence begins, the bartender decided to chime in finally. He starts to talk about his family and friends. How some people he knows are getting to be inherently more and more concerned about the power of technology and how they could eventually be taking over their jobs. He jokes how that supposedly will not ever happen to the healthcare industry. He laughs at how people will ever trust machines over people. The doctor mentions his family members who work in grocery stores, customer service related fields, etc. and then even mentions himself.
Then promptly, a whole discussion about robots taking our jobs ensues, and the two doctors have differing opinions in the benefits that technology in the form of the internet and social media provide in their field of healthcare. The younger one takes a positive approach to the new technological developments while the older one holds to his conservative values on the matter. The arguments include the controversy of certain alternative medicines on the rise and their effectiveness such as traditional chinese medicine (TCM), cupping, and DIY methods as they were made popular and accessible with the means of the internet. They discuss the issues of internet challenges which have resulted in countless injuries which have spread on social media. The older doctor makes the case how social media has led to a rise in anxiety and depression. He claims how online healthcare will never replace real care. The younger doctor says that it will not really replace but will rather be a supplementary tool to their care with positive effects being able to connect doctors to patients more easily and suffers to advice. The younger doctor made the case how many of his patients suffering chronic diseases has found relief in meeting groups online of people suffering from the same thing.
The doctors begin to have an ongoing debate about whether the implementation of the internet and social media on health care was a malicious or beneficial development. The first doctor mentions how he had a patient which struggled with terrible anxiety without any attributions to it. She was literally having anxiety attacks for no reason and needed a way to relax and calm down. She found relief through the power of ASMR. ASMR or Autonomous sensory meridian response, provided to be a great therapy for the patient without needing to use drugs of any sort she could relax and sleep. The other doctor gives an argument on the other end where one of his patients was severely bullied via the internet. He makes the case that cyberbullying is a real thing and should not be taken lightly which the internet and social media enable by providing the platform. He says how the patient had gotten to a point where he was close to taking his own life in committing suicide. The other doctor then argues how he has a patient who was overweight, then obese, and in a horrible state of health. He found relief on social media by learning about dieting plans and proper exercise which allowed him to safely lose the weight and get proper exercise, going from obese to overweight and until he reached a good BMI level.