Rammya Mathew: Why I use Google in front of my patients—and now use AI too

It often comes up in conversation with friends: someone will say, usually with a touch of judgment, that their GP searched online for their symptoms during a consultation. The implication is clear—if the doctor has to look it up, perhaps they don’t really know what they’re doing.I used to share that concern. Early in my career, if I needed to check something, I’d wait until the patient had left the room. I worried that pulling up a guideline on screen might dent their confidence in me.But my approach to this has changed. In my consultations I often now open the relevant guidance there and then, talking the patient through my thinking. It’s not about displaying uncertainty but about showing humility and transparency. No doctor carries the sum of medical knowledge in their head. What matters is our commitment to finding the right answer for the person in front of us.The…