Web surfing isn't just for cyberchondriacs
Tapping into medical information on the Net can make your visit to the doctor's office more efficient

ANDRE PICARD
A physician who treats himself has a fool for a patient," said the legendary Canadian physician Sir William Osler.
Today, thanks to the Internet, we are all physicians. And potential fools.
All you need to do is Google your symptoms and, presto, you have a diagnosis. A few more key strokes and you have a course of treatment - thanks to products hawked aggressively online.
No need to book an appointment with the doctor, no need to wait in the interminable line at the clinic or the emergency department.
You can simply sit at home in front of the computer and wait to die.
If you enter enough symptoms into a search engine, you will invariably come up with a diagnosis of cancer or something else fatal.
Thankfully, most people - with the exception of a hard core of cyberchondriacs - do not take everything they read online at face value.
Rather, they rely on good old-fashioned medicine and use the Web to get a second (or first) opinion.
Is there a way to get the best of both worlds - to tap into the seemingly unlimited information on the Web to make your interactions with health professionals more efficient and effective?
There are many.
First, there are good diagnostic tools online. Sites such as EasyDiagnosis.com, Mayo Clinic and WebMD have "symptom checkers" that can, if nothing else, help you figure out if junior's fever and cough is something that should be checked out by a doctor.
Diagnosis is not easy because a broad swatch of conditions, big and small, have common symptoms.
A headache, a hangover, a migraine, a concussion and a brain tumour all have similarities, but trained health professionals can make the distinction pretty quickly and they have access to specialized tests that are required if there are real concerns.
Physicians and nurse practitioners tend to use differential diagnosis, a systematic method of eliminating possibilities to pinpoint the cause of a problem.
A computer program can do this, but only to a degree. Even physicians are abandoning the classic Physicians' Desk Reference and using instead computer programs like DiagnosisPro and eMedicine to assist them. But, ultimately, there is no substitute for training and experience.
One of the most effective uses of the Web is for basic health information, or wellness information, if you will.
You can get excellent information online about diet, exercise and other lifestyle issues. But beware of charlatans selling dubious "fat melting" products and stick to reliable sites like the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Health Network. (It remains a travesty that funding has been cut to the latter, a wonderful resource that is dying at the hands of short-sighted bureaucrats.)
People living with chronic conditions such as arthritis, heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease can also benefit greatly from Web resources, in particularly by hooking up with like-minded (or like-suffering) individuals. The Web-based communities that have formed in recent years have been a blessing for many, and the basis for some exciting consumer activism.
The unfortunate thing, however, is that these activities remain the exception rather than the norm.
Canada is a laggard when it comes to health-related technological innovation. Only one in four doctors in this country have an office computer that serves for something other than billing. Electronic health records and electronic medical records, tragically, remain a curiosity in much of the country.
The Canadian public also seems slow on the cyber-uptake. New data published this month by Statistics Canada show that the majority of adults - 16.8 million - use the Internet, but only 8.7 million use the Web to search for health information.
Not surprisingly, women - the custodians of health in Canadian families - are twice as likely as men to use the Web to seek health information and advice, particularly when they have young children.
More than one-third of users report discussing the results of their Internet finds with a physician. As much as some doctors dread patients who come in with a stack of printouts, this is a positive development because dialogue is an essential element of good care.
The challenge for the health system is to encourage and integrate this quest for knowledge into practice and care.
Rather than dismiss the Web as a minefield of quackery and half-truths (which it can be), we need to empower patients with good information and the ability to find credible sources.
Right now, we are failing to do so. Most provinces have telehealth lines and some are starting to implement the 8-1-1 health information line.
But where is the Web version of 8-1-1? Where should Canadians concerned about their health and wellness begin their quest?
Providing that starting point, that portal, should be a priority in the delivery of health care. Failing to address this need for patients is foolish indeed.
HEALTH IN CYBERSPACE
The following websites can
be used for diagnosing your
own ailments:
EasyDiagnosis.com
MayoClinic.com
WebMD.com
Other reliable sites include:
Canadian-health-network.ca emedicine.com
Heartandstroke.ca
PDRhealth.com