Knowledge Communication and Communication Risks in Healthcare—Professional Amateur Patients with Thyroid Disease Show the Way

Abstract

This chapter advances our understanding of knowledge communication and communication risks with its focus on the diagnosis and treatment of patients with thyroid disease. The chapter reports on an exploratory pilot study in which ten thyroid patients were interviewed about the communications related to their disease that they received and sought. The interviews, which were semi-structured, gave the respondents the opportunity to offer suggestions and to ask questions that might be useful in the subsequent research. Content analysis was used to analyse the interview data. Owing to their dissatisfaction with the amount and nature of the knowledge communicated to them by the professional medical community, the respondents report they seek alternative information sources online (e.g. websites, patient forums, research literature). Both internal and external risks are identified with the professional and amateur sources of knowledge. Among the internal risks is the risk of receiving inadequate and erroneous information. Among the external risks is the loss of trust in physicians and the healthcare system. The chapter calls for greater recognition of patients’ potential to contribute to their diagnosis and treatment. The patients’ perspective is too often under-appreciated or even ignored by the professional medical community.