Time to codify a challenge in communication

Abstract

Infophobia, a term not being introduced in the medical literature, is one of many factors that may hamper a Patient-Health Care Provider (HCP) encounter. This phobia creates resistance to accepting medical knowledge, potentially becoming a significant barrier in medical practice, explained by patients’ fear of information that may negatively impact medical assessments, therapies, and immunization. Since complications of this phobia are well beyond information, it should be recognized, and herein by presenting a dermatological case, we aim to establish this concept to identify this phenomenon.

Keywords:

• Patient-physician relationship
• dermatology encounter
• information
• phobia
• fusidic acid

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s). NHS received honoraria from AbbVie, Amgen, Bausch Medical, Celgene, Janssen, Leo, Lilly, Novartis, Pfizer, Sanofi-Genzyme, UCB.