Good medical information answers: What is this?
Good patient communication also helps answer: What does this mean here?
Patients looking up a medical term after an appointment is not inherently a problem. They may find excellent information from hospitals, professional societies or patient organisations.
The difficulty is context.
A medical resource can correctly describe causes, associated conditions and possible complications. But those possibilities do not arrive with the weighting a clinician gives them.
Rare and common can sit next to each other on the screen.
All of it may be medically correct. Not all of it is equally relevant.
All of it may be medically correct. Not all of it is equally relevant.
A practice website can provide that missing layer. It can explain why a subject arises in this particular clinical context, what usually happens next and where general information stops and individual assessment begins.
The aim is not to keep patients away from Google.
The aim is not to keep patients away from Google.
It is to give them a reliable point of reference when they use it.
