Canadian Diabetes Association website welcomed by doctors

A doctor from Niverville says more and more people are doing their homework before visiting their doc. And Dr. Chris Burnett (right inset) says he welcomes that. "I much prefer that I'm a partner with my patient in their illness," says Dr. Burnett. "And the more they know, the more they're educated, the better it actually makes the conversation." Dr. Burnett admits sometimes doctors aren't the experts. "I've been educated by my patients many times."

Dr. Burnett says in the new paradigm of health care, he's seen as more of a coach instead of the final authority. And he says doctors shouldn't feel threatened by this. He notes sometimes patients present him with a list of side effects that he's unfamiliar with. And it's something he can learn from. However, he notes if a patient comes in with pages upon pages of research they've done and expect h

im to read through it, that probably won't happen. "But if you come and say look doctor I researched this site and this is what it's saying and there's this new drug, what do you think about it. I might say, oh that's interesting, let me do my research and we'll talk about it next time."

Having said that, Dr. Burnett says when researching your symptoms, it's important you get your information from the right source. He says unfortunately there isn't a star rating on the World Wide Web. "There's no rating to say there's more, this is better that that," he says. "So sometimes I can say to someone, have you tried this site, rather than that site." Dr. Burnett says going to websites of national organizations can be very helpful. "Many of them are actually run by people who suffer from that illness. So if you go to www.diabetes.ca, which is the Canadian Diabetes Association, you will get quality information put on that site by people who suffer from Diabetes. And I recommend it for all my patients." Dr. Burnett says really it comes down to the quality of the website. Dr. Burnett says it's not uncommon for physicians to provide a link on their websites where patients can do their homework beforehand.

As for self-diagnosis, Dr. Burnett says that can be more of a risk. He says finding an answer is not as easy as it may appear. "Unfortunately if what I had was a cookbook medicine that I could just tick, tick, tick, tick, tick and I have that illness, I'd be out of a job and I could go and do something else." Dr. Burnett says "there are many illnesses that have the same gamut of symptoms and you know quite honestly it's hard for all of us sometimes to weed through what it is. So be careful about using it to diagnose."