Doctors' groups differ on net diagnosis

The Medical Council says it has no major problems with internet-based medical sites.

But the Australian Medical Association (AMA) has cautioned against people using the internet to self-diagnose medical problems after an elderly couple committed suicide when an internet health site wrongly convinced them that the wife had terminal cancer.

The chairman of the AMA council of general practice, David Rivett, said an autopsy had shown that the woman, from rural New South Wales, did not have cancer.

Dr Rivett said if people relied on the internet for their medical advice, they could often get it wrong.

While a face-to-face consultation could lead to misdiagnosis, it was much safer than trusting an internet service.

"Doctors can certainly misdiagnose medical conditions, but you're far more likely to get the correct diagnosis from your doctor than doing it yourself."

A spokeswoman for the New Zealand Medical Council said it "wasn't definitively saying no" to diagnosing illness over the internet and last month released guidelines for doctors using the internet.

The council acknowledged that the internet and e-mail were playing an increasing role in medical practice and in providing a wider scope of communication between doctors and patients.

The guidelines said the council "wishes to emphasise the inherent risks in providing medical advice through a medium where physical examination and testing of the patient is not possible."

"Doctors need to be confident that a physical examination would not add critical information before providing treatment or advice to a patient and be prepared to defend that position, with evidence, in the event of a subsequent complaint or legal proceedings," the guidelines said.

Doctors were also reminded that whether the patient lived in New Zealand or overseas the Code of Health and Disability Services, consumers' rights and other relevant New Zealand legislation had to be observed.

Doctors providing advice or consultation with a patient outside New Zealand "will become subject to potential legal obligations, requirements or liabilities in other countries."

The NZ-based Doctor Global group said yesterday that its service gave people a chance to get more information about their medical conditions.

Doctor Global representative Dr Simon Leslie told Australian radio he had recently given information to a woman suffering from a brain tumour who had just wanted a second opinion.

"A recent study in the US [found] that nine out of 10 people who leave their doctors' surgery have inadequate information to understand their illness or carry out their treatment," he said.

"We're just filling in the gap for people who want more information."

- NZPA