"We must open ourselves to the future," says Drauzio Varella about health information available on the Internet – Health



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Reference in health communication, physician Drauzio Varella began producing content for the mbad media in the 1980s with a chronicle on the radio. Today, the 75-year-old oncologist has his main audience on the Internet . Only on their YouTube channel there are nearly 1.2 million subscribers. Drauzio also maintains a health portal containing reports, interviews, videos, podcasts and even a health check session. more informed about health. The problem, he says, is the lack of screening to distinguish the correct information from that produced without scientific evidence.

Since I started to publish a column on the radio in 1985, I already see this huge interest for the Brazilian government.

Why is Brazil the country in the world where the search for health problems grows the most? Brazilians by subject . One of the reasons is that we learn very little about health in schools. Schools do not have this concern to teach anatomy, the cardio-respiratory apparatus. People grow up to become adults without basic health knowledge and therefore feel unsafe. So we have a mbad of poor people who want to know, know how to prevent diseases, but do not have the time to study. The Internet today has provided this research . The misleading information without sieves, is that it creates a problem since none of this information goes through the selection. But if you look at the bigger picture, this greater access to information on the Internet has had many benefits. Patients are much better informed. When I started in the profession, the ignorance was absolute.

Why do doctors use technical language? Because technical language defends us

Why do doctors use technical language? People who listen to you can not criticize you because, in medical terms, you are right. But when you use this language with a patient and he does not understand you, there is a communication fault. The challenge, when speaking on television or the Internet, is to use clear and simple language, but without losing scientific precision, because one is badisted at the same time by a faculty member of the Faculty of Medicine and by people who have not had the opportunity. study

On your YouTube channel, in addition to informative videos, you also share personal health experiences, such as laziness during your exercises, and resonate with the comments of your subscribers. Does it help to bring the public closer to the doctor?

I think so. We try to take into account the comments of the followers in the elaboration of the guidelines and I think that this approach depends on the personality of the professional. I have never had this authoritarian position as a doctor because I think that medicine should be an exercise in humility. I am even surprised by the doctors who think they have the answer to everything, because in our profession, we often meet patients with similar images with responses to totally different treatments.

Many arouse interest, but I realize that some topics, such as the morning after pill and hemorrhoids, have a large audience, because these are topics that people are ashamed to ask at the office or for knowledge.

How to improve the health information available on the Internet?

I think it is a question of education. Living with the Internet is a relatively new thing, Internet is free and some people still believe everything they read, without worrying about seeing the sources, comparing and verifying. I think that with time it will go to a medium level and the sieve will be bigger.

There are doctors who feel uncomfortable with patients who are researching diseases on the Internet and come to the office with various hypotheses. How do you see this conflict?

These doctors are not sure that there is no shame in a patient who has read something you have not read. I've always found that preventive medicine and health education are as important as a conference on bad cancer, for example. And the internet helps patients with that. When people stop you on the street and tell you that your video or television program has helped them quit or something like that, it gives them strength. Today, I think my videos have had more impact on people than all the patients I have seen in my life, because of the reach of the internet. When I started making radio stickers in 1985, a serious doctor did not speak on the radio or on television. I have experienced these prejudices, but over time people are watching and judging with different eyes. Moreover, nowadays, it is very different. He has many doctors with websites, Facebook pages channels on YouTube with quality information. We must open ourselves to the future. If we do not renew, we lose the tram.

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