The average visit with a family doctor in Canada lasts just 10–15 minutes.* That doesn’t leave much room for small talk, which means being prepared matters. Advocating for your health starts before you ever step into the exam room.
Living with hypertension, I track my blood pressure several times a week and use Apple Health to monitor trends like my heart rate. If I’m feeling unwell, I’ll take an ECG using my Apple Watch. I try to book appointments after my annual breast MRI (breast cancer runs in my family) so I can address any questions right away. I also keep an eye on changes in moles and other symptoms. Having my health information at my fingertips helps me arrive informed and makes our limited time together more productive.
To better understand how technology can support more meaningful doctor visits, I spoke with Dr. Sheila Wijayasinghe — a nationally recognized family physician and health communicator known for making complex medical topics accessible and empowering. With over 20 years of clinical experience and a decade as the resident health expert on CTV’s The Social, she translates everything from menopause to patient self-advocacy into practical, real-world guidance.
Here’s her take on how technology can help you prepare and have more informed conversations with your family doctor.
With appointments with family doctors often limited to 10–15 minutes, how can patients use technology to arrive more prepared for their appointment?
Time is short with your family doctor or nurse practitioner, so we want to be thoughtful and efficient coming in. Whether you use a wearable device or a simple notebook, try to notice patterns ahead of time and summarize them in one or two sentences. For example, “My sleep has been under six hours most nights for the past month,” or “My resting heart rate seems higher than usual.” That clarity helps us spend less time gathering information and more time understanding what is happening.
Many people collect a lot of health data but don’t know how to interpret it. What metrics tend to be the most clinically useful in primary care?
In primary care, the most helpful information tends to be resting heart rate trends, sleep duration patterns, hypertension notifications, and irregular rhythm alerts. These can offer insight into cardiovascular health and overall stress on the body. What matters most is consistency over time, and that can come from a device or from tracking symptoms yourself.
How can patients pair subjective symptoms like fatigue, stress, or poor sleep the health data they collected to have more meaningful conversations with their family doctor?
If you are feeling tired, look at what was happening during that same period. Were you sleeping less? Was stress higher? Did your activity levels change? Even saying, “I have felt exhausted for six weeks and my sleep has been fragmented,” helps connect the dots. When your lived experience and your observations line up, it makes the conversation more meaningful.
Wearable technology can reveal long-term patterns rather than single red flags. From a physician’s perspective, how should patients think about trends versus one-off readings?
How can people use these tools to feel more empowered, not more worried, about their health?
It’s really about balance. Tracking can help you understand your patterns, but it should not make you feel constantly monitored. Bodies change with stress, hormones, illness, and aging. If checking your numbers increases anxiety, it is okay to step back and trust how you are feeling. Privacy concerns are also important to discuss. If you are using digital tools and apps, review the privacy settings and understand who has access to your data.
Not everyone has access to digital tracking. How can patients still monitor their health effectively?
You do not need a device to track your health. A notebook, a note on your phone, or marking symptoms on a calendar can be just as helpful. Writing down when something starts, how long it lasts, and what else is happening in your life often gives us the same longitudinal picture.
Finally – what other tips do you have for patients so that they can get the most out of their appointments?
Choose your top concern before you walk in and be clear about what you are hoping for. It might be reassurance, testing, a plan, or simply understanding. You also have the right to ask for clarification. If something is not clear, say, “Can you explain that in a different way?” or “What would you recommend if this were you?” If healthcare spaces have not felt safe for you, consider bringing an ally in with you to your appointment for support.
*Source MacLean’s Magazine
