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The Doctor Will Skype You Now
amkkhan writes Next time you need to go to the doctor, instead of making an appointment, why not just fire up your smartphone? New programs by companies such as Doctor on Demand and the University of Pittsburgh's AnywhereCare offer one-on-one conferencing with doctors, either over the phone or through video on your phone or computer – giving you all the medical advice you need without having to set foot in a doctor's office. This new breed of checkup, known as telemedicine, has the opportunity to revolutionize personal health, says Pat Basu, chief medical officer of Doctor on Demand and a former Stanford University physician. "Two of the most important skills we use as physicians are looking and listening," he says. "Video conferencing lets me use those skills and diagnose things like colds, coughs and even sprains in a manner more convenient for you."
I'm more worried about the rectal exam.
#DeleteChrome
Mr. Snowden begs to differ. Yet another benefit the NSA/Microsoft conjoined twins have fucked up.
Prove anything by multiplying Huge Number times Tiny Number
Usually telemedicine is bogus, for hypochondriacs, helicopter parents and women with bladder infections.
Prescriptions are limited to antibiotics for those with compelling easy diagnosis like the aforementioned women with bladder infection histories.
The ones I've seen advertised on HR bulletin boards at companies I've visited always say they won't prescribe any narcotics or other "controlled substances" (gee, aren't all prescription drugs controlled substances if you need a prescription?).
While this makes sense it also doesn't, since there are plenty of conditions that are extremely painful but neither life threatening nor worth a trip to an emergency room on a weekend. A 2-3 day supply of Percocet to ameliorate the pain of a back injury until you can see your regular clinician won't create or enable anyone's addiction.
Until telemedicine gets over its paranoia about drugs its just not worth the effort.
You're on a Mac that is...
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While continuing to raise premiums.
I have never, ever, ever been to a doctor's appointment, and not had my blood pressure, pulse and temperature taken, even for the most routine visit. Nor should I, ever, in the future. Yes, I could, in theory, do those things myself and tell him, but none of the home kits can hold a candle to the gear they use, even if used correctly by the patient.
If I go in for something specific, physical contact becomes more specific. How can a doctor palpitate my chest, or listen to my lungs, over Skype? Some doctors will favor this because it will let them spend even less time with each patient, and insurance companies will push it because it will cost them less, but I won't put up with it. And neither, I think, will my doctor, who is very good.
How big is your camera?
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No. I like keeping my medical information private and I don't want people listening in on my the conversion like they can do with Skype.
But it was a random blood sugar test that diagnosed me T1 diabetes and a random blood pressure check that diagnosed me high blood pressure (and saved my life, if the 240/160 reading was anything to go by).
So no, I would have to say phoning it in would be as terrible an idea as... phoning it in.
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I would imagine these are for the case where the patient can't get to the doctor's office frequently.
Doctors' offices are full of germs. You are almost as likely to catch something else, as you are to be cured of what you have. Most health problems are routine, and a doctor should be able to diagnose them over the internet. Since there is no need for the doctor to be local, or even on the same continent, you can quickly be referred to a specialist if you have something complicated, This could replace 80-90% of doctor visits, saving people time, making better use of doctors, and preventing nosocomial infections.
Whether this raise privacy concerns would be open for interpretation.
I am confused. What would the privacy concerns be? I can't think of any.
Or for follow-ups. I had an appointment with a specialist this last Monday. She prescribed some stuff, said to call back or come in (if necessary) in two weeks. What if I could Skype for five minutes and say how things are going, maybe show the affected area of my body on the camera for a quick look. Saves time all around. Then if I really do need to come in for a personal visit, we can schedule that.
Seems that often enough I just want to talk with a physician and do not necessarily need the hassle of driving there just to talk face to face. Yeah there are plenty of times I need to show up in person too, but this could be one more tool to save time and energy. I miss less work (or stay less late to make up the time), the physician gets to see more patients. It could be a win all around.
24 beers in a case, 24 hours in a day. Coincidence? I think not!
1. Use telemedicine to handle chemical abortion, in states where there are few or no clinics left that will carry out elective abortion due to intimidation and harassment.
2. Watch as those states pass bills (Some already have) to ban telemed abortion, while claiming that they are just trying to outlaw a dangerous procedure that kills women.
3. Watch as courts strike down those laws as placing an undue burden and thus violating Wade, pointing out that the claimed reason is clearly only a pretext as non-abortion telemedicine is not prohibited.
4. Watch as states pass new bills to outlaw telemedicine completly.
If I go in for something specific, physical contact becomes more specific. How can a doctor palpitate my chest, or listen to my lungs, over Skype?
Then you're not the target audience for this service.
It's targeting:
- The anxious people ("Doctor, the tip of my nose is itchy a bit, am I gonna die ?!") where 99% of the time all you need is to ask them and make sure that there are no other worrying symptoms and reassure them and ask them to come to the office if it persists longer than a week ("Has half of you face melted? No? Then it's definitely *not* Noma, no need to panic. Come see me if next week if it still does persist").
- The very simply common disease that are basically just about renewing the supply of self-medications ("Why do you bother coming here for a common cold?", "But doctor, I'm out of acetaminophene.", "ah, okay. here's your prescription.")
- The recurring simple infection that are actually damn easy to diagnose (e.g.: women who have often bladder infections can very easily recognise them. No new alarming symptom that wasn't there last time? It will probably go away with a simple drug) (e.g.: boyfriend has some bacterial STD? girlfriend needs a prescription to protect her too, and if she doesn't have any symptoms at all, she doesn't require an actual visit to the doctor beyond a few question about allergies).
If you break your leg in an accident, there's no way that a skype conversation will help you.
Well, actually speaking about what you said (needing to listening the lungs, etc) it might work the other way around: there are some people (call them "hyper"-chondriacs if you will) that tend to downplay symptoms because they don't want to bother loosing time going to the doctor's and think that the symptoms will wear of. If you provide them with a phone-line maybe some of them will think giving a call isn't that much bothersome, and will at least call the doctor. That also means that doctor can take the opportunity to explain to them that the thing is a little bit more serious than they've taught and persuade them that maybe it would be good to drop by the office for a more thorough check (or directly rush to the ER).
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
I saw a notice on my company's intranet last week advertising this program. As a pilot, it was offering free "visits" (PCP visits are free under the regular program.) Tuesday morning, I needed to leave on a business trip just after lunch, and I had my colon acting up (nothing disgusting, just inconvenient.) Several years ago, the same thing happened and an Rx for Hyocyamine fixed the issue. I didn't have time to see even a Doc-in-a-box, much less my PCP.
In a few minutes, I registered for the program, picked one of the four physicians currently online, and after about a five minute wait, she popped onto the screen. She went through a quick history, had me prod various parts of my abdomen to make sure it wasn't some serious organ problem causing my colon issue, and sent the Rx to the K-Mart across the street. She reminded me that she was no substitute for regular physical exams, and that if the problem continued I should see my regular doctor. I cannot imagine a doc-in-a-box visit for the issue would have been very different.
In short, this is exactly the sort of issue telemedicne works for. It saved me the hassle and time of a doctor's visit, it worked for my employer since I didn't have to cancel my business trip, and it worked for my primary doctor, who didn't have to work me in at the last-second.
Really, I think it's best for the sort of issues that you'd handle yourself if the drugs you need to treat it were OTC, but for whatever reason, are not. It ain't going to make a whole lot of sense for most problems.