Even if we don’t have a family doctor having a General Physician whom you consult for all your health problems is a good option as they would have all details about the your medical history which is very crucial and vital to infer a disease.

Most patients browse the Net to get more information about disease or disorder, what is your opinion in this regard?

The Internet though appears to provide information superficially, it disorients the patient to a great extent.

For instance a patient had acute lower abdominal pain and concluded that the pain was due to stones in the kidney and visited a urologist, guided by the ever useful Net. Got an Ultra Sound Scan done which did not show any stone in the Kidney.

Later came to me for consultation. Correlating his lower abdominal pain with intermittent fever and the change in the bowel and urination made me suspect a growth in the colon.

A CT Scan of the abdomen was requested which revealed cancer in the colon. He was immediately referred to the Gastroenterology department, underwent surgery and his life was saved. Thus visiting a General Physician can save the patient a lot of trouble, since they will be guided to the right Medical Speciality, if necessary, for their problem. The Net gives you a probable solution which may be right or otherwise.

Do you say that a patient should visit a General Physician instead of a specialist?

I would narrate a story before answering the Question.
Five blind men were asked to describe an elephant.

The person who felt the leg said that the elephant was like a pillar. The one close to the tail described it was like a rope and so on, since none could see the elephant in totality.

The specialists are conditioned to think and relate all symptoms with the organ system they treat and specialize. Thus do not look holistically whereas a General Physician tries to relate the symptoms to more than one organ system and by elimination arrives at the right conclusion of the system that is signaling the symptoms, indicating trouble and requires attention. The patient thus gets guided to the right speciality for further treatment. Thus it saves them a lot of time, money and anxiety.

Please tell me if the awareness on Health care increased?

Yes, the awareness on the Health Care has risen to a large extent in the urban population. I am of the opinion the Net as well as the programmes aired in the Media in the name of creating awareness has created fear and doubt in the Patients, making them paranoid, as they feel that they suffer from many grave diseases based on the probable symptoms indicated for the diseases. They are seldom convinced if they are told that they do not suffer from those grave diseases that they dread of!

They order their tests and tell me that they will undergo a CT or MRI Scan, Dengue serology and so on as they want to conclusively rule out these diseases. Thus unnecessarily spend huge sums of money to clear their assumptions and doubts.

After the discussion with you it is very clear that ‘A Little knowledge is a dangerous thing!

What's black and white all over and difficult?