Anyone see their doctor via Telepresence ?

[Modelworks]

There is a doctor I see that uses telepresence. Talk about weird. The first time I went to the office the nurse did all the usual stuff and then she said the doctor would see me now. I walked into the room to see a lcd monitor about 32" in size and a webcam on the wall. On the screen he was sitting at his desk , looking over my chart. We talked, he made his suggestions, and called in the prescription to the pharmacy. They had a setup where the nurse could feed in a paper on her end, it was scanned and printed on his end seconds after she scanned it.


There was no lag and the quality was perfect, other than him not physically being there, it worked well. Just odd for a doctors visit, I think I prefer a physical present doctor.
He is one of the best in his field and said he uses this because it allows him to reach patients he otherwise could not.

Anyone else have a doctor they see this way ?

 

[Platypus]

How do you turn and cough?

 

[Porter21]

I'm stunned. That's amazing.

 

[Gooberlx2]

I guess it depends on what your ailment is. For anything that they can get away with telepresence at the office, you'd think they could set it up for you to dial in from home.

 

[vi edit]

It'd really just depend I guess. For a primary care physician I'd want a body in the room.

But if the guy is a specialist and all the results/exams are available to him via electronic means then there really isn't a lot of value with him physically being there. If you have an Xray/MRI/CT done at an ED at night there's a good chance that it's a guy in Switzerland or Austrailia doing that final overview of it. Not somebody sitting in the hospital you are at.

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: Gooberlx2
I guess it depends on what your ailment is. For anything that they can get away with telepresence at the office, you'd think they could set it up for you to dial in from home.

I think it is all about trying to not totally lose the human connection. If you can see the person, it feels more personal than just talking to them over the phone.

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: vi edit
It'd really just depend I guess. For a primary care physician I'd want a body in the room.

But if the guy is a specialist and all the results/exams are available to him via electronic means then there really isn't a lot of value with him physically being there. If you have an Xray/MRI/CT done at an ED at night there's a good chance that it's a guy in Switzerland or Austrailia doing that final overview of it. Not somebody sitting in the hospital you are at.

The guy is a immunologist so I guess he doesn't have to do much normally that requires him to be hands on.

 

[techs]

By "doctor" I thought you meant "hooker"
nm

 

[2Xtreme21]

Originally posted by: techs
By "doctor" I thought you meant "hooker"
nm

Yeah, and by "see" I thought you meant "do cocaine off the ass of a."

 

[BW86]

lol - thats pretty wierd

 

[KnickNut3]

This makes a lot of sense for specialists. We've taken my father to specialized oncologists hours away and waited in the exam room for 2 hours to have the doctor come in for 5 minutes, listen to his heart for 5 seconds just to justify his physical presence, then report on an exam he had done a month ago with a conversation that does not require contact.

Bottom line: if doctors could bill you $300 for a phone, they'd have these conversations over the phone. But they can't justify that charge to insurance companies, so they withhold information, inconvenience you and make you come in so that they can charge for a physical visit.

This telepresence stuff seems like a compromise and a step in the right direction.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Originally posted by: Modelworks

Originally posted by: Gooberlx2
I guess it depends on what your ailment is. For anything that they can get away with telepresence at the office, you'd think they could set it up for you to dial in from home.

I think it is all about trying to not totally lose the human connection. If you can see the person, it feels more personal than just talking to them over the phone.

Well I meant with a webcam...skype style or something like that. Or maybe webex can make use of webcams. I dunno.

Originally posted by: Modelworks

Originally posted by: vi edit
It'd really just depend I guess. For a primary care physician I'd want a body in the room.

But if the guy is a specialist and all the results/exams are available to him via electronic means then there really isn't a lot of value with him physically being there. If you have an Xray/MRI/CT done at an ED at night there's a good chance that it's a guy in Switzerland or Austrailia doing that final overview of it. Not somebody sitting in the hospital you are at.

The guy is a immunologist so I guess he doesn't have to do much normally that requires him to be hands on.

That makes sense. Any tests he needs run can be ordered from his location to your local quest diagnostics, labcorp, or whoever.