Patients praise and pan virtual doctor visit
iMarketingInsights has a great article about the pros and cons of online doctor-patient visits. As I mentioned in one of my recent posts, there are numerous ways a patient can see a doctor online. I truly recommend you to follow their iMedHealth channel as well.
According to findings released from an January 2009 survey of online US adults by Prophis Research, many see the benefits of convenience and time-savings aspects and think that the concept in general is fantastic.
However, there are also many detractors who are not convinced. The same research shows that almost as many online adults with health care coverage have an initially negative impression of the concept.
Image source: iMarketingInsights
Almost 50-50. Is this a problem? Absolutely not. The changes that can happen in healthcare only depend on the needs of e-patients. If they want to have a doctor who can “see” them online, there will be such doctors (e.g. Hello Health).
But there always be patients (fortunately) who are afraid of the online world and want to see the doctor in real life. They will have their own doctors too.
Too much fuss here. It’s not about the technology, but about the needs of e-patients.
This survey provides us with a lot of useful information about it.
An on line visit can be a convenience if the doctor knows and previously seen the patient in the office. Otherwise, you’re working from limited and sometimes wrong information. There are several on line services that are HIPAA compliant, including http://www.housedoc.us, which is free, that facilitate such communications.
The article writes about types-of patients that will have types-of doctors. But I guess I would like to make the online/offline decision based on the symptons I have. If I have a bad flue where I know half my neighbourhood has it I will choose for online. As if I had something that requests more privacy (showing symptons at different parts of your body) I’d rather go offline. Health2.0 is all about giving the patient choice, not to categorize them.
I think there are so many diverse issues and positions on healthcare, not to mention patient needs and technology that everyone is going to be different. Some insights from telemedicine might be instructive here. As someone earlier stated, if you have an established relationship with the doctor and patient in place, this may be useful for follow up visits, and a more partnership type of model.But if is a new situation, then maybe it is best to meet in the flesh as it were to set a baseline…..And as someone else pointed out, it also depends on the problem. My point is, let’s not rush to simplistic conclusions as these are complex variables and complex situations. For myself, I would like to read the methods section on this research as that might provide further clues as to how to interpret the results!
Check out this story about doctors who offer online house calls in Tennessee: http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009903050303
Claudia,
Thank you for the link. I will mention it on Scienceroll.
Berci
Bertalan:
I’m trying to locate more information about the article you link to on imarketing insights, but cannot locate their web address. Is the link broken, or is it my computer? Also, could you post link to Prophis Research? I’ve tried to locate thier website but without success.