I have been away for just two weeks for CNY and another flame
war started? 
Haven't had time to read all the comments (no point reading those
in a flame war...bad for the heart and mind anyway). Many of the
negative comments I read are not worth repeating...lots of angst,
anger and even arrogance....but I do not want to re-start flame
wars. Here are my views:
As I previously PM to alexkusu when the idea of such a forum came
up, I suggested a disclaimer of sorts, but not for the reason some
of you might think. To those who talked about disclaimers on
websites, you may not realize that often they are not worth the
paper they are printed on. Having a disclaimer does NOT protect you
from litigation if someone suffers harm from your advice.
In a negligence suit, you have to prove a duty of care, dereliction
of duty, damage and causation. If you receive medical advice from a
website of the Mayo Clinic about your specific condition from one
of its employees, you might reasonably suspect that a
doctor-patient relationship exists. A disclaimer is useful in this
context to inform the viewer that the website does not acknowledge
such a relationship. However, it does not prevent you from arguing
that having Dr ABC from Mayo Clinic telling you your condition
requires a particular treatment constitutes a doctor-patient
relationship, regardless of what the disclaimer says.....and you
may indeed be right.
In a forum such as this, when the participants are anonymous and
even as some critics admitted, they do not know if the moderators
are health professionals, how is one going to argue that a
doctor-patient relationship exist in the first place? I have said
that I am a medical doctor but how is anyone to know?
As I have said before during the earlier flame war involving
renorenal, a forum such as this is purely for information and
entertainment. Nobody should or can successfully claim that a
doctor-patient relationship exists simply because XYZ advises a
particular course of action in a thread. Incidentally, one would
have to sue Sgforums.com rather than some phantom entity who can
dispense advice under a multitude of clones. Interestingly, I have
not seen any disclaimers by Sgforums.com; and I would certainly put
one up if I were Jason or Fireice. Not so much for fear of
negligence suits (one would be laughed out of our courts) but the
very real possibility of defamation (which is no laughing matter in
Singapore).
Back to the reason I suggested a disclaimer so long ago...I thought
it was a good idea just in case there are naive persons as
suggested by certain critics, who might think that they can
substitute the need to see a doctor by getting free consultation
through cyberspace. To the cheapskates who might be tempted to save
some money by not seeing a GP, the disclaimer would warn them that
they would not have the full legal protection of a doctor-patient
relationship by relying on information on the Web. In other words,
the disclaimer is not placed to avoid being sued, it is to tell the
patient that chances are that you will not be able to seek legal
redress without a proper consultation in a doctor's office.
Incidentally, why would doctors and lawyers give free consultations
when we should be earning good money for them? I am not allowed to
advertise or I would leave my practice address here 
This is the form of a disclaimer I had in mind. If the other
moderators are in favour, we can put it up. It has no legal effect
but serves to inform, which is after all, the purpose of this forum
as well:
"The information and materials on this forum are provided by the
moderators and other users for general informational purposes only
and not for the purpose of providing medical advice or giving a
medical opinion on any specific facts or circumstances. Your use of
this forum does not create a doctor-patient relationship between
you and the moderators or any other users."
