Diagnosis by photo, treatment by phone... and no quackery!
Virtual Doctor"Around the World"
A group of scientists from the Central Hospital of Massachusetts (Massachusetts General Hospital), USA, found out that the quality of medical examinations conducted at a distance using modern means of communication is not much inferior to real visits of doctors, EurekAlert reports.
The results of the study were published in May in the Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare.
The aging of the population in the United States brings many problems to health services. The prices for services in medical institutions are incredibly high. At the same time, it is often very difficult to just get an appointment with a doctor. And doctors don't have enough time – according to statistical calculations, the doctor spends on average only 10 minutes on the patient. In this regard, it was decided to organize "visits" of doctors to patients using videoconferences. After each visit, both virtual and real, the doctors filled out questionnaires. Further analysis of such questionnaires showed that the quality of diagnostics when transferred to the virtual mode dropped from 84 to 80%, which is considered an acceptable norm. Of course, not all examinations can be carried out in this way, but it is considered possible to introduce such a form of examinations for constantly observed stable patients. This will significantly reduce both transportation costs and the time that doctors have to spend on the road.
Note that in reality some doctors have already switched to this form of communication with patients. For example, an American doctor Howard Stark from Washington moved his practice from his office in the clinic to the Internet. For two years now, the gastroenterologist therapist and his assistant Michele Norris-Bell have been receiving patients mainly by e-mail. Since the beginning of their online practice, they have already received 14 thousand letters. According to Howard Stark, he feels more like an old-fashioned family doctor than a modern doctor, often intimidating patients. The doctor does not take money for e-mail answers, the patient pays only for an annual one-time examination. Repeated prescriptions are issued free of charge, medication intake is adjusted, and treatment is occasionally prescribed.
In addition, in some hospitals in the United States, doctors, being a few kilometers from their place of work, use robots with a video conference function to examine patients. According to the manufacturers of such a novelty, this increases the efficiency of the work of doctors, allowing them to be present in several places at once.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru/18.05.2009