Barking up the Wrong Tree

How this started… out of the blue today, I had an email from the UK-based internet service. Their client was looking for a “nutritionist” for their medical condition. The service had googled on their behalf (apparently not very well because, well, I’m not a nutritionist, I’m a doctor) and found me.

Here are a list of things that can go wrong with using services like Bark for healthcare:

1. This internet service isn’t based in Ireland. Our complicated health service is hard enough to navigate for those of us who live here – what hope does anyone else have?!

2. This is a service designed to help you find gardeners, dog groomers, and web designers (and they are great for that!) But the nature of medical queries is that email contained medical information that they had volunteered. How many people received that information? Did the “client” understand they were a client and medical confidentiality didn’t apply here?

3. These services aren’t set up to help navigate/validate CORU-registration for allied health professionals and what qualifications that this client should be looking for.

4. Most health care professionals aren’t looking for business. We are busy so most aren’t signed up to service like that! So it unlikely to be nd many options to offer clients.

5. They can’t tell the difference between a nutritionist and doctor reading a bio on a website so …

If you are wondering how this ended, since I had been provided – randomly and unsolicited! – with this “client’s” email, phone, full name, and summary of medical condition. I dropped the client a short email suggesting they get a local referral or suggestion from their GP/consultant or find a registered nutritionist through the INDI website.

I could (should?) have ignored this whole thing, honestly. But if you follow, you know I advocate for patient safety and education and my gut reaction was: If the patient felt they needed help finding allied healthcare services, I can take a minute and point them in the right direction