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How to Google Your Symptoms Without Freaking Out | John Whyte | TED - Video học tiếng Anh
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How to Google Your Symptoms Without Freaking Out | John Whyte | TED
How to Google Your Symptoms Without Freaking Out | John Whyte | TED
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Untertitel (246)
0:07
(Video)
0:11
(Music)
0:19
(Typing)
0:28
[Cerebral aneurysm]
0:30
[Meningitis]
0:36
(Typing)
0:38
[Can I die from a brain tumor?]
0:51
(Typing)
0:53
[Can an aneurysm kill you?]
1:16
[Last Will and Testament]
1:20
How many of you have felt like that, right?
1:24
It's human nature.
1:26
We all have searched for symptoms that we might be having.
1:31
Maybe it's a mole on our skin,
1:34
a cough that we’re experiencing
1:37
or a headache.
1:38
And what happens after ten minutes?
1:42
We don't become more clear on what we might be having.
1:46
We're more confused and more concerned.
1:50
So we're talking about joy.
1:53
But then how can we have joy when we’re searching about our health,
1:57
and we're having some of these challenges?
2:00
As I said, we all do it.
2:02
You know, I used to come out and ask people,
2:05
"How many of you have searched health conditions online?"
2:10
Now I say,
2:11
"How many of you have searched for health issues today?"
2:17
Because I want to share a statistic with you.
2:20
A billion.
2:22
A billion, nine zeros.
2:25
That's how many search on health
2:29
there is every single day.
2:33
And it's actually going up.
2:36
And when you put it into context --
2:38
how many is that every hour?
2:43
Every minute.
2:45
And up until recently,
2:48
I was the chief medical officer at WebMD.
2:51
And many of you likely ended up at WebMD.
2:55
And at WebMD, the motto is
2:58
better information leads to better health.
3:02
And as a physician, I firmly believe that.
3:07
I want you to become informed.
3:09
I want you to become empowered.
3:12
But the challenge is
3:15
information isn't knowledge.
3:20
Remember the phrase TMI?
3:22
Do people still say that?
3:24
Too much information.
3:26
Typically, we would say it about what?
3:29
We'd say it about
3:31
someone's giving you too much personal information.
3:35
Makes you feel awkward.
3:37
Maybe a little anxious.
3:39
Well, TMI also is around health.
3:43
Too much information,
3:45
when you're searching for your symptoms,
3:48
actually can create anxiety,
3:50
can actually be dangerous.
3:53
So I saw a patient two years ago.
3:56
True story.
3:57
I'm going to call her Mary,
3:59
that wasn't actually her name.
4:00
But Mary came in because she had what's called cerumen impaction.
4:05
Anyone ever hear that?
4:07
Basically means your ear's clogged with wax.
4:11
It's very common.
4:13
Now Mary had searched it online,
4:16
and she saw, rightfully, that hearing loss can lead to dementia.
4:22
So she was very concerned that she was having decreased hearing,
4:27
even though it was only for a day.
4:29
Very concerned about it.
4:31
She also read that too much earwax
4:35
could be signs of infection,
4:38
which I'll tell you, that's not the truth.
4:40
But she was very focused on getting the wax out of her ear.
4:45
So she had read that hydrogen peroxide is actually pretty good
4:50
if you mix it equally with water.
4:53
But what she did was she microwaved it,
4:58
and then she put it in her ear.
5:01
And obviously she came into the office because she had a burned ear canal,
5:08
very red, very irritated.
5:11
And I said to her, "Mary, why?"
5:15
And maybe I shouldn't have said it like that,
5:18
but that exactly is how I said it.
5:20
"Why?"
5:21
And she said,
5:23
"I read it online.
5:27
And I thought it wouldn't hurt.
5:32
But it did."
5:33
And that's the challenge.
5:37
Remember the phrase hypochondriac?
5:41
People that have symptoms
5:44
and every symptom is always the most serious?
5:49
Well, now we have this phrase, you might have heard it,
5:52
cyberchondriac right?
5:53
You go online --
5:55
I always feel cyberchondriac should be like crime solvers
6:01
because they look at every detail,
6:05
everything is magnified,
6:07
and it's always the worst-case scenario.
6:13
My 12-year-old is a little bit of a cyberchondriac.
6:18
So this summer he had a bit of a blister
6:23
on his foot
6:25
because he needed these Kobe cleats that were too big for him,
6:31
but he insisted he needed them, and he developed a blister.
6:36
It wasn't healing after a couple days,
6:38
it started to look a little infectious,
6:40
and my wife took him to urgent care.
6:44
They cultured it,
6:46
they gave him an antibiotic.
6:48
They came home that evening, and I said, you know, “How did it go?”
6:53
And he says to me,
6:55
"You know,
6:56
it could be MRSA."
6:59
And I thought, "That's pretty clever for a 12-year-old.
7:03
But MRSA is still kind of unusual."
7:05
And he said, "And this antibiotic doesn't cover it."
7:09
And he was right in terms of the information that he found.
7:16
Now, the next day,
7:19
I get a call from the doctor's office.
7:22
It's MRSA.
7:23
(Laughter)
7:25
And I think, how am I going to tell him that?
7:28
But it was, and he did need to have the antibiotic changed.
7:33
And my point is,
7:34
sometimes the information you search is correct.
7:38
Often it is.
7:40
But you have to put it into context.
7:42
Now, just to be fair, my wife had some knee pain,
7:46
just last week after starting back up at the gym,
7:49
and he goes over to her, and he says,
7:51
"Could be jumper's knee,"
7:53
which is a patellar tendonitis.
7:56
It's not.
7:57
It's just, she just started to work out,
7:59
so now her knee is bothering her.
8:02
But I get it.
8:03
These are powerful tools in terms of generative AI
8:09
and ChatGPT and Google.
8:12
But they don't know your history.
8:15
They can't do a physical exam,
8:18
and in many ways, they're causing more confusion.
8:23
What I talk about is
8:25
it's really the issue
8:27
of clarity versus confusion.
8:33
And if you want to have joy, if you want to use symptom checkers
8:38
and the web and AI to understand your health better --
8:43
and I want you to become more empowered --
8:46
it is about having clarity versus confusion.
8:53
And that can be challenging.
8:55
There’s a lot of misinformation out there,
8:59
and algorithms often drive you to inaccurate information.
9:05
So ...
9:08
The feeds on Instagram are often driven by algorithms
9:12
and what you search.
9:15
So my younger son -- that’s my older son --
9:18
I have a younger son who very much wants a golden retriever.
9:22
So my Instagram feed is loaded with goldies,
9:26
[so] I think everyone has a goldie.
9:29
Or it's on a lot of wellness information.
9:32
Having been at WebMD and a physician.
9:36
And like many people in the population,
9:38
I'm on a statin for primary prevention because of high lipids.
9:42
And I've been starting to ...
9:45
I like to read other doctors' feeds,
9:48
and there's a bunch of cardiologists that are saying
9:51
you don't really need to be on a statin.
9:54
It really should be diet and exercise,
9:56
and that statins actually can increase dementia,
9:59
not decrease dementia.
10:00
Now here I am, I've been a physician for 20-plus years,
10:03
I know the data on statins,
10:06
and I’m starting to think maybe I don’t need a statin.
10:10
And then I’m getting more doctors’ feeds that are saying
10:12
you don't need to be on a statin.
10:15
And I'm thinking, this can't be right.
10:18
So what do I do?
10:19
I dig a little deeper.
10:21
I see that many of these physicians
10:23
that are talking about this are selling a particular product.
10:26
Some of them have had some issues with their medical license,
10:31
but the algorithms drive you
10:36
to the same type of information that you're already receiving.
10:40
And that can make it more challenging
10:43
because it really comes to an issue of trust.
10:48
Who can you trust?
10:51
And it's about that human interaction.
10:54
Are you going to trust a chatbot or an influencer?
11:00
Are you going to trust the relationship that you have with your doctor,
11:04
the nurse, the pharmacist?
11:08
When you think about searching for health information online,
11:11
and we all do,
11:13
and that is a good thing and can be a powerful tool,
11:18
because I want you to be empowered,
11:20
here's what I want you to think.
11:24
When you search for financial information,
11:29
what do you do?
11:31
Do you just listen to any influencer that has a million followers
11:36
or two million followers,
11:38
to do cryptocurrency or to invest in a certain product?
11:43
No.
11:44
What do you do?
11:46
You check the credentials of that person
11:50
and try to corroborate that information somewhere else.
11:56
You think, does it make sense?
11:57
Can I really make 50 times my investment in a short period of time?
12:04
And what do most of us do?
12:07
We ask someone that we can trust.
12:10
We ask an expert, does this make sense?
12:15
And why do you do that?
12:17
Because it's your money.
12:20
And that's important.
12:21
Your future.
12:25
But I would argue your health is even more important.
12:30
Certainly for your future.
12:34
And sometimes when it comes to our health,
12:36
we're very willing to have this attitude of,
12:40
"Why not try it?"
12:42
"What's the harm?"
12:45
We're willing to listen to anyone.
12:49
You know, someone else had a good experience,
12:51
so maybe we will too.
12:53
But you're much more discriminating when it comes to your finances.
12:59
So we talk about joy.
13:02
We talk about [how] our health often contributes to our joy
13:07
or takes away from our joy.
13:09
So it's important that you do become empowered,
13:14
you do become educated,
13:17
but then you have to take that next step
13:21
and think about that connection
13:24
with a human.
13:26
I think there's a great role for technology,
13:30
although sometimes I think there might be too much technology.
13:33
I don't know if others agree with that as well.
13:36
But when it comes to your health,
13:37
the most important element that you have,
13:44
you want clarity,
13:46
not confusion.
13:49
And that comes from those elements of knowing who the messenger is,
13:55
checking that information,
13:56
corroborating that information,
13:59
knowing if it sounds right to you.
14:03
And then talking about it to someone that you can trust.
14:08
Thank you.
14:10
(Applause)
