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- iHaveNet.com: Health
Megan Johnson
Donita Gano woke up one Sunday morning and knew she had a problem. The 59-year-old public-health nurse had fallen and gashed her elbow about 10 days previously, and now it was warm and inflamed, signals that it had become infected. Figuring she would need an antibiotic and not wanting to wait until the next day to see her doctor, Gano logged on to an online clinic site launched in early 2009 by the
It's easy and convenient for the nearly 150 Hawaii doctors who have signed up for HMSA's Online Care program, too. On a Maui beach near his office, internist Irving Harper towels off, picks up his cellphone, and handles questions from patients he's never seen. At home, he pulls up their medical records and E-mails them his recommendations. He has occasional video chats with patients but prefers to do those from his office, dressed more professionally than on the beach.
On call. Patients in the Hawaii program receive care from doctors scheduled to be reachable at that moment. A 10-minute "visit" costs
Gano and Harper are surfing a new wave of patient-friendly, relatively inexpensive, Web-based healthcare. The technology behind the HMSA program, created by American Well, a Boston company, is being picked up by other health insurance plans.
Some healthcare plans, such as
Such services offer more than convenience, however. An online encounter often is a substitute for an expensive trip to the ER. It's also likely to be cheaper than an office visit, plus it confers nearly instant access to a patient's choice of available doctors and--a boon for employers--may trim the number of workdays missed for minor maladies. Ninety-five percent of Harper's patients using the Hawaii service can be managed without a face-to-face visit, says the physician.
Many Americans are would-be prospects for online care. Half say they would be interested in using the Internet not only as an information source but to receive healthcare directly, according to a recent survey by an arm of
About 10,000 individuals, most of them residents of the New York metropolitan area, can already get an online (or phone) emergency consultation with one of 34 ER physicians who have signed on with a company called SwiftMD. CEO Elliot Justin, a doctor, has diagnosed a fungal infection by webcam (and a case of hemorrhoids, he says with amusement).
Patients in Brooklyn, N.Y., who don't have health insurance (and physicians who don't want to deal with insurance claims) have the option of joining
Besides bringing care directly to patients, these and other telehealth technologies have the appeal of slowing the upward spiral in the nation's healthcare bill. "Given the economic crisis that we're in," says Jay Sanders, president emeritus of the
© U.S. News & World Report
Technologies that let patients consult with physicians online spreading rapidly
Article: Copyright © Tribune Content Agency