Medical Consultations With Webcams Extremely Successful

AgaveNectar writes "Doctors are far from being early adopters, so they have just gotten around to publishing a report that webcams help immensely with making the right decision when someone shows up to a rural emergency room suffering from a stroke. Using clot-destroying medications like Alteplase is really risky, and it should only be given in acute cases. In a study of 222 patients, rural ER doctors consulted with faraway stroke specialists. They made the right decision 98 percent of the time when the expert examined the patient with a webcam, and only 82 percent of the time when they just talked to each other on the phone. Perhaps this report will finally convince the medical community that telemedicine is important."

Comments

Are they using SSL?

[seanonymous]

Will my privacy be protected, as per HIPAA, when then they stream video of me lying in a hospital bed, being less than articulate, across the interwebs?

A more interesting study

[nasor]

I would like to see a study comparing patient's success rates at self-diagnosis with google vs. a doctor's diagnosis success rate. Every time I've had to go to the doctor lately I've successfully diagnosed myself with the internet and known the treatment before I went, only to pay $120 for a doctor to look at me for 5 minutes and say what I had already guessed.

Re:Next, outsourcing to Bangalore

[ColdWetDog]

I'm not sure that I call transmission of digital information 'telemedicine' but we use remote radiology all the time since we are too rural to afford a full time radiologist.

I'll call them up and tell them that Portland, Oregon is officially considered a "low wage country". I bet they will be surprised!