Is Google Making Us Stupid: Redux

Kent Anderson, formerly of the New England Journal of Medicine and now with the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, posts a provocative blog titled "Is Google Making Us Stupid, Part II: Maybe, If We Don't Seek Truth Over Knowledge." In it, he explores a recent post by Nicholas Carr , author of the original 2008 Atlantic article "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" which blamed the Web for his growing attention deficits. Carr is now decrying the abdication of our role in gathering knowledge and making judgments due to reliance or dependence on external information sources.

Anderson links these concerns to medicine, saying:

"Yet, as the age of systems emerges, we might be seduced into thinking that systems of information can become effective substitutes for truth or knowledge — even if these systems are incomplete, non-contextual, non-specific, and situationally insensitive. As medicine has learned over its decades of serious advances, population-based interventions can only go so far — individualized treatments are instrumental to delivering effective care. Each patient holds his or her own truth, so to speak, and the wise physician doesn’t simply follow the guidelines, but uses information as a starting point for judgment."

Anderson goes on to discuss comparative effectiveness research (CER), points out a recent economic study of CER that concludes it may not work as intended, and ties CER and medicine back to Carr's post. Why? He shares an anecdotal experience of being recommended to undergo an unnecessary surgical procedure because, he concludes, "one physician refused to believe what he was seeing with his own eyes. He only fed data into a system and accepted the path it set for him."

He is quick to point out that an anecdote is not data, but I can't help feel that his story exemplifies exactly what critics of "cookie-cutter medicine" fear: that doctors, increasingly pressured to see more patients in less time, and pushed to follow guidelines, protocols, directives, and any of a number of data-driven decision-making and cost-containment systems, will lose their ability to effectively practice individualized patient care.

I found Kent's post and links very thought-provoking, in terms of online searching making people lazy about making their own judgments, and also drawing a parallel to medicine and Carr's concerns about decision-making. But dagnabbit Jim, I'm an editor, not a doctor. Most of you reading this are in the health-care trenches and possibly wrestling with similar issues in your own day to day practice. What do you think? Are docs and health-care workers at risk of becoming automatons?

About the Author

Stephen Welch

Senior Vice President, Communications
Executive Editor, CHEST

This blog, "It Ain't Rocket Surgery" is intended to help busy health-care professionals find useful online and mobile resources that will enhance their self-education and professional research efforts, or point out important topics of discussion related to online information and content. The blog's title is a Yogi Berra style mash-up of two common phrases, "it ain't brain surgery" and "it ain't rocket science". I hope it will be casual, fun, insightful, and -- most of all -- educational.

You can follow me on Twitter. 

I currently serve ACCP as the Senior Vice President of Communications, as well as the Executive Editor of CHEST, the ACCP’s flagship journal. During my 15 years here, ACCP has focused on growing and developing the editorial, technological, and business aspects of the College. We are constantly striving to make the journal and other ACCP educational content as accessible and useful to clinicians as possible.

When not at work, I like to spend time scuba diving with sharks, collecting original comic book artwork, exploring the digital world, and searching for good BBQ.

Your feedback about the blog is always appreciated. So are tips on good BBQ joints.