GP's often confronted by Internet informed patients

A psychologist, Elaine Brohan, from the University of Surrey in Guildford, England, has found that family doctors are having to redefine their traditional "father figure" role because patients increasingly turn to the internet for medical advice, and GP's are often being confronted by patients armed with website print-outs.

Brohan says in the past, a GP represented the face of authority but were now having to find new ways to preserve the traditional relationship of trust with patients.

Doctors were switching from being a "father figure" to a "facilitator" which meant providing guidance and advice rather than acting as the fount of all medical knowledge, because patients were already crammed with information.

In the study she conducted in-depth interviews with nine rural and urban GPs in Ireland and presented her findings at the British Psychological Society's conference at the University of Manchester.