I often see a lot of people consulting online about dermatology and STDs, and there are many consultation platforms available on the internet, such as Baidu Know, etc. As a dermatologist, I have often answered many patients’ questions on major platforms. However, when answering patients’ questions, I have encountered many unanswerable questions that we doctors cannot answer. Therefore, dermatologists suggest that if patients want to consult online about dermatological and venereal diseases, I want you to look at the following suggestions first. Liu Zhi, Department of Dermatology, Affiliated Hospital of Guizhou Medical University
Try to describe your condition in detail
Some patients ask questions in one sentence, asking our doctors how to treat them. For example, some ask “How do I treat acne?” “How to treat allergies?” I am really helpless in the face of such questions. When faced with such questions, I suggest that patients read medical textbooks or search on the Internet and stop asking dermatologists. If a dermatologist has to answer, we can only tell you the general situation, but nothing specific will help.
The treatment of skin diseases and STDs, of course, is not only limited to skin diseases and STDs, is to decide on different treatment plans depending on each person’s condition. The same disease, age, gender, medical history, symptoms and so on different, treatment methods are also different. If the disease treatment methods are the same, the doctor that is good.
Some patients or just a picture, asking what is this? This is also very helpless, if simply a picture to diagnose skin diseases are also there, but most skin diseases we are to objective symptoms and subjective symptoms. There are many skin diseases that have a similar rash pattern.
Therefore, dermatologists recommend that you make sure to describe your condition clearly before consulting a disease. Skin diseases can be described according to the following aspects
1. how long the disease has been present
2. what kind of rash was present at the beginning of the disease, its distribution, symmetry, size and shape. I recommend reading the article on how to effectively and correctly describe the rash of a skin disease.
3. what is the self-perception, such as itching, pain, or no apparent sensation, etc.
4. how did the rash evolve? Did it increase quickly or slowly, or did the number not change much? Is there any significant change in the size of the rash, etc.?
5. what is the current situation? What is the shape, distribution and self-perception of the rash?
6. Has any treatment been administered and how did it work?
Upload pictures if possible
Some patients are okay with their medical history, but not with pictures. Dermatology is a morphology, and the diagnosis of dermatology can only be made by actually looking at the rash and using our doctor’s hands to feel the rash. Some dermatological diseases can be correctly diagnosed by looking at the rash and feeling it with our dermatologist’s hands.
Also, if the rash pattern is different for the same disease, the treatment will be different. It is more practical and effective to talk dryly than to have a picture. Therefore, I recommend that patients always have a picture with their online dermatology consultation.
Of course, if the patient doesn’t want to have a picture for privacy reasons, it’s not possible, and the diagnosis is more of a guess. At this point, I would recommend that patients go to a regular hospital dermatology department for a field visit, which is more reasonable than on the Internet.
Try to go to the hospital
Although there are many medical consultation platforms, I still recommend that patients go to a regular hospital. As highlighted above, diagnosis of the disease is not a simple matter, and sometimes relevant tests are required to make the diagnosis. Therefore, it makes more sense to go to a hospital than to consult on the internet.
However, some patients may be very busy, or have a very mild condition, or think that the hospital excludes bad scheduling, so they want to consult online. There is nothing wrong with this, but I suggest that the diseases consulted at this time are common and multiple diseases, and not difficult diseases.
Some diseases may be cured by taking some medicine, so you can consult online. Or some patients simply want to consult the prognosis, medication precautions and other simple questions, you can also consult online.
Try to go to a professional medical platform for consultation
Nowadays, there are many medical consultation platforms, such as Baidu Know, etc., but the quality is different. I suggest that patients go to professional medical platforms or APP consultation, not in the public platform consultation dermatology. For example, I have been in Baidu know for a period of time dermatology and STD consultation, but now not in the above Q&A. So there are a lot of answers on there that are searched and the results copied and pasted directly, without any consideration of the actual situation of the patient. What’s even more ridiculous is that these answers are actually adopted as the best answers.
Some answers are even more outrageous, full of advertisements and recommended products, and these signatures are also adopted as the best answers. The regular answers, which may sound bad, are ignored. It’s ridiculous and hopeless.
So I suggest that if patients want to consult dermatology and STD, try to go to a professional medical platform to consult, not in the public platform to consult.
Don’t ask about difficult diseases on the internet
There are many patients who often ask about difficult diseases on the Internet. Looking at the descriptions of the patients, the patients have been seen in many big hospitals and have undergone many tests, but the diagnosis is unknown. Some patients are diagnosed clearly, but treated in several large hospitals, but the treatment effect is not satisfactory.
These patients will seek help online at this time. Faced with these patients, I am also very helpless.
The diagnosis of dermatological diseases, as I have said repeatedly above, requires the eyes of our dermatologists to actually see and hands to actually feel. Sometimes it is even necessary to use relevant tests to diagnose, such as skin pathology. It is difficult to diagnose with just a few words and pictures on the internet. So many dermatologists have actually looked, touched, and examined the patient, but have failed to diagnose correctly. The majority of doctors cannot make a correct diagnosis based on a few words and pictures from the patient alone.
Therefore, difficult diseases do not ask on the Internet, go to the hospital field consultation, than spend online consultation is more practical, more effective. Even if you can find the answer online, the answer will not be much more reasonable at this point.
Don’t ask questions about the root cause of diseases that can’t be cured
Many skin diseases cannot be cured, such as psoriasis, herpes, and so on. However, many patients hope to find a cure on the Internet. As a dermatologist, I understand the suffering of patients, but there are many diseases that cannot be cured with the current medical methods.
However, although they cannot be cured, they can be controlled. The former of skin disease control is a reasonable and regular treatment, and with maintenance. Therefore, it is necessary to adhere to a treatment method, not to change a treatment method east to west, the result of which can only aggravate the skin disease. For example, the aggravation and deterioration of the condition of many psoriasis patients is caused by indiscriminate treatment. Therefore, I suggest that patients should first adhere to a treatment method for a sufficient period of time for diseases that cannot be based on, and then consider changing the method if it is ineffective, not a method shallow taste.
Also, patients should not hold the cure to treat the disease that cannot be cured, which will only make them more anxious, and the disease will be treated in a hurry. This is more harm than good.
I hope everyone can have a healthy body!