Modern network and communication are more developed, many patients with cervical and lumbar spine diseases like to consult on the Internet, send their own films and reports to doctors, hoping that doctors can give reasonable treatment suggestions. But many times, doctors may reply online that "you need to come to the clinic for a face-to-face consultation before you can be sure...". Many patients are not satisfied with this reply, and they are also very puzzled, "Why has my cervical/lumbar spine tablets been passed to the doctor, and the doctor still can't give the answer I want?" ”
Just looking at the film really can't confirm the diagnosis or give detailed treatment opinions!
Diagnosing the disease or giving the patient a detailed treatment plan is a very rigorous process, if you only look at the film to diagnose it, it is not authoritative and standard clinically.
After the patient only sends a few tablets or simply describes the symptoms, it is not only unrealistic to ask the doctor to give an accurate diagnosis and treatment, which is not only unrealistic, but also irresponsible to himself. Why?
A millimeter of difference, a thousand miles of loss! In online consultation, I often find that the clarity of the films transmitted by people is not high, and the description of my symptoms is often subjective and not meticulous. At this time, a word or sentence may be inaccurately described, and it is likely to mislead the doctor to give the wrong conclusion.
There are many diseases that have similar symptoms to cervical or lumbar spine diseases, and if the patient simply describes the condition, the doctor cannot perform physical examinations and other examinations on the spot, and it is impossible to accurately identify these diseases.
In the online consultation, the patient information obtained by the doctor is very limited, even if the patient sends a clear film, the doctor cannot judge whether the symptoms he describes must be consistent with the situation shown in the imaging film, and whether there is a possibility of missing the diagnosis.
Outpatient consultation has an irreplaceable role of online consultation!
Doctors can intuitively face patients in the outpatient clinic, observe the patient's face, spirit and severity of symptoms, and obtain comprehensive patient information. Although the patient's description of symptoms is still subjective, doctors can understand the patient's specific situation through physical examination, palpation, and other methods. Moreover, the film of directly observing the patient during the outpatient clinic should be more detailed than looking at the pictures on the mobile phone. If symptoms do not match imaging films, the cause can also be identified as early as possible.
My clinic has a lot of patients at a time, and usually I bring two or three doctors with me every time I go out of the clinic, who are specifically responsible for conducting outpatient examinations. Take the lumbar disc herniation patients we often encounter as an example, such patients come to the consultation room to check the specific regional distribution of pain and numbness in their waist and legs, and may also have to do pathological reflexes of the lower limbs, tendon reflexes of the knee joint, and sometimes femoral nerve traction experiments, straight leg elevation experiments, and strengthening experiments.
These physical examinations are very important, you can initially determine the cause of the patient's symptoms, and then carry out targeted supplementary tests, or in the case of complete examinations, the diagnosis of the disease is carried out, and specific treatment opinions are given.
Treat online consultation correctly, do not rely too much, and do not overly exclude!
In today's era of developed networks, the connection between us people has been inseparable from the small smart phone in our hands, which has also greatly shortened the distance between doctors and patients.
Although many things can be handled and communicated online, for now, health problems and network problems cannot be precise and individualized. So to deny the network consultation? Nor does it need to, it does bring convenience, and many patients can be initially screened in this way. However, if it is related to the diagnosis and treatment of the disease, the safest way is to go to a regular hospital for examination and treatment.