Kate Walsh isn't sure if playing Dr. Addison Montgomery on Private Practice, and previously on Grey's Anatomy, has improved her medical outlook in real life.

"I don't know if I'm a better patient," Walsh said. "I think so. But I don't really love going to the doctor. Maybe it's out of pure laziness, I'm not sure."

But surely Walsh must know more about medicine than she did before the role of Addison came her way.

"I'm just an actress," said Walsh, slicing a scalpel through the theory of knowledge by osmosis.

"Personally, I have huge respect for doctors, both Western medicine and Eastern. But really what I like is alternative medicine, acupuncture, things like that. That's what I kind of go for."

The third season of Private Practice debuts tonight on ABC and A.