A third of doctors admit they have googled patients, with many more agreeing it is okay to search online for useful clinical information about a patient, an AusDoc survey reveals.

And the majority believe there is nothing unethical with searching for a patient online without clinical justification.

A debate about the rights and wrongs of scouring patients’ social media pages without their knowledge erupted earlier this month, after The BMJ interviewed a junior doctor working in an ED who treated an HIV-positive patient.

Certain that the patient had not disclosed their full history, the junior doctor turned to the search engine and quickly discovered the patient was an “adult film performer”.