A new report shows that providing patients with e-mail access to their surgeons improves communication. The conclusion of authors of the  report says that “People who use e-mail certainly would like to have e-mail access to their physicians”.

Concerning the issues raised in the emails, we have general information (55%), post operative recovery (21%),  results (13%) and reassurance (11%).

This data gives us the reassurance that a service that will be offering interactive consultations with physicians will be well accepted. People are already using tools like email, social tools, and the new tools for web 2.0 to interact with each other. We won’t be changing the habits of people just suggesting a better way to interact with your doctor. Medicine just like other disciplines is in a great need to take the leap for the information age. Right now there is so a huge amount of  medical information on the web, what is needed is to give it a human face. Your TeleDoctor will be the regulator of information. It is in between people doing auto diagnosis online and people visiting their family physician at the medical office.

P.S. The original article can be found here.