3.0 How to manage information in partnership with health professionals

You may want to ask your doctor about a piece of medical research you have found or request a particular therapy or drug you have seen on the Internet.

Please think carefully about how you do this. Doctors are very busy and the consultation is very short.

Make the best use of this short consultation time by:

• selecting one piece of high quality information, from a professional medical source:
  (a) written by a doctor or medical researcher;
  (b) with the author's name and details and the date;
  (c) with details of the source where you found this, and the Web address.



• taking this to the consultation:
  (a) or sending the information in advance so the doctor has time to read it.

Rather than taking Internet information to the doctor first, think about talking it over with an advice worker in a support group.

• Support groups often use medical staff for advice about the medical research literature.



• Support groups often cover the research literature on their Web sites or in their newsletters.



• Their advice workers will know about current research.

However support groups cannot replace consultation with your own doctor.

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© Copyright for this site is held by Contact a Family and the Information Society Research and Consultancy Group, School of Computing, Engineering and Information Sciences, Northumbria University. Site published February 2003. Last updated October 2006. Review date October 2007.