There is no rocket science to see the correlation between Ageing and frequent visits to the doctor.

As people grow older the probability of visiting hospitals and physicians also increases, I guess it’s a part and parcel of the ageing process.

The larger point of debate is, with the growth of technology a lot of health and medical supervision is being done online, is this a positive or negative trend in the overall well-being of older people?

While on one hand, most people tend to avoid going to the doctor unless it is absolutely unavoidable, however on the other hand, there are many Seniors who like to go and see the doctor for every small issue.

If one has to understand as to why Seniors prefer to visit the doctor instead of online consultation, an interesting fact will be seen;

“The comfort and assurance which older people feel when told by the doctor that all is well whilst holding their hand, cannot be replaced by any online consultation”.

When older people visit the doctor, it is like the Midas Touch for them, even if the doctor gives a calcium tablet the “Placebo Effect” works wonders for their well-being, this mainly comes from the reassurance of the human touch.

The psychology behind the feel good factor of visiting a doctor is not just about health or medical care, it originates from the need for interaction, physical movement, socializing and most importantly a sense of being alive.

I am sure we all must have faced similar feelings when we have to interact with Automated Response System or Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS). 

The satisfaction and assurance of talking with a human in a call centre is similar to talking to a doctor on a one-to-one basis in comparison to talking to a computer generated voice.

I only hope that, as the world progresses we should not lose the human connect, but then the past 200 years of evolution has proved how humans have advanced with our unique sense of development.

Pankaj Mehrotra