Dr Google v Dr Real: Is it unethical to dismiss patients who self-diagnose?

Abstract

With online information at their fingertips, patients increasingly present with self-diagnoses - a trend that both empowers and complicates care. Many clinicians react with dismissal, seeing such behaviour as a challenge to their expertise. But is it ethical to disregard patients who Google their symptoms? Through a case vignette and analysis grounded in autonomy, epistemic justice, and beneficence, we argue that dismissal reflects a deeper failure of ethical engagement. Medical education must evolve to equip future doctors with humility and communication skills to guide, not guard, patients in an information-saturated world.