Dr. John Beasley
by Dr. John Beasley, M.D.
Aviation Medical Examiner
Professor Emeritus and Clinical Professor
Department of Family Medicine
University of Wisconsin – Madison
…at least that’s what we call it in the clinic when we go to the Internet when we don’t have a quick answer for some question.
Perhaps you have a question regarding medical certification. Maybe your “doc” has just made a diagnosis of elevated blood pressure and you want to know how this will affect your medical certificate. You Google “FAA elevated blood pressure” and the first several hits give you more information than you ever wanted to know about the official policy and certification requirements.
Are you an AOPA member? Go to their website, then to their Medical Certification Center, and search for elevated blood pressure and you get not only the short version of the FAA policy, but some other useful information – including some strategies to lower blood pressure without taking medications.
Or, perhaps your personal doc has decided that you should take cetirizine (Zyrtec) for allergies. Consult with Dr. Google using “FAA cetirizine” and immediately you will get to several web sites that will let you know that it is a “no-no” when you are a required crewmember.
So what are your choices? Back to Dr. Google, again. You can search “FAA antihistamines” and you will get to several websites that address the general issue. Toss the prescription that the doc gave you and get some over-the-counter loratadine (Claritin). That works and is legal. Again, the AOPA website also gives brief and specific information.
Finally, if you want the really hard-core scientific literature, go to “Google Scholar,” which specifically searches the scientific literature for randomized controlled trials and the like.
But searching the Internet can have its risks – one colleague of mine suggested it can be like drinking from a hose and you are not sure where the other end is! So look for the source before you assume that the information is correct.
And in this same vein, one thing that the Internet is not so good at is providing information about the likely causes of physical symptoms. So you have a headache – could it be a brain tumor? Dr. Google says, “Sure, headaches can be caused by brain tumors,” and you panic. But here is where things get a bit uncertain. While headaches can be an early sign of brain tumors, I’ve never seen it in my career – but I have seen thousands of patients with headaches. So, if you have some specific symptom, be careful about using Internet sources. It may just scare the dickens out of you and is not likely to be very useful.
Oh yes, and just for fun, I Googled up the N number of the Cessna 140 that I soloed in. It is still out in California, but apparently not currently in license. Humm… Maybe I ought to go and see if it is for sale. I sure had a lot of fun flying it!
EDITOR’S NOTE: Dr. John W. Beasley is a professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Department of Family Medicine, and an Aviation Medical Examiner (AME).
