You’ve got strep throat. Or at least, you think it’s strep throat. No matter, you know you just need to be seen now. No problem. Just go online and poof — instant physician. That state’s leading medical society is enrolling primary care phsyicians in a plan to transcend what is traditionally known as telemedicine. Although the online patient teleconferencing has the secure Web-encrypted tech to pull something like this off, videoconferencing may also be employed. 

I think that there’s a half-empty/full way of looking at this. Ostensibly created to provide much-touted “convenience” to patients as consumers for “very common ambulatory problems”, this type of online consultation will ultimately force physicians to wade through yet another level of bureaucracy that the accountability of 21st century healthcare delivery demands. Oh, if only Paperwork 101 were a course in med school. | LINK

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