“A new study by Microsoft researchers suggests that persons who consult the Internet for self-diagnosis of medical conditions typically end up with the wrong conclusions. The report is the first to take a systematic look at “cyberchondria,” the practice of leaping to dire conclusions while researching health matters online, according to Eric Horvitz, an artificial intelligence researcher at Microsoft. Many people, he said, treat search engines as if they can answer questions like a human expert. Microsoft researchers note that they did not intend to send the message that people should completely ignore medical symptoms. But they do need to consider lesser illnesses as well as more deadly ones if they search online. “People tend to look at just the first couple results,” Horvitz said.”

My point is that the Internet will never be a physician. Microsoft has clearly stated that they are going to face difficulties in developing intelligent search engines that will resolve internet search patterns letting them look for at the right places; they want to enhance the actual search. But the real question is the following: Is enough to simply enhance the actual search to provide valid results for users?  The short answer is no, and the guys at Miscrosoft are honest enough to admit it. At Your TeleDoctor we are tackling the same problem, but instead of leading into a very hazardeous route, we prefer to use the internet for what it is for: An way to enhance communications and to add value to healthcare consumers by offering real services through this medium, remotely. We add a missing element to the value chain. People will keep looking for health information online, because it is a more convienient way to verify health issues and also a faster way as medicine is not an exact science and will never be. In the other hand, they want a more convinient way to confirm this information with a qualified physician.

Calling in sick may be a thing of the past, but not for the reason you might think: A poll by www.ehealthforum.com shows that more than 30 percent of people surveyed feel guilty about taking the time to attend a doctor’s appointment during office hours. According to the results, 29 percent of U.S. residents felt “mild to extreme” guilt, while 28 percent of Canadians and 35 percent of British respondents carried the same feelings. Mark Turkovic, co-founder of eHealth Forum, said people often want to be seen as the hardest, longest worker in an effort to preserve their jobs - especially in a down economy. “Sadly, taking the time out to visit the doctor all too often falls by the wayside,” Turkovic said.

At Your TeleDoctor, we believe that such a behaviour can lead to the following consequences:

-Increased Illness and death from stress, hearth disease, cirrhosis and suicide.

-Loss in competitivness due to lack of energy and lack of focus at work. Ultimatly, this situation can lead for you to lose your job.

As discussed in an earlier post, we believe that being able to consult your physician remotely can greatly reduce the likehood of missing a whole day to arrange a doctor visit. This is even more important in the current economic downturn where employers want to keep their jobs at any cost.

Since we are heading towards a possible economic recession, people will be very attentive at their spendings, by this means people will buy what they urgently need. And while healthcare is one of the priorities with food expenses and housing, we can expect that a cut on that budget occurs, especially for the category that pays for the visits.

In that sense how can we keep with health expenses when our overall budget is tightening? You cut on on your healthcare budget waiting for better times? This is certainly the immediate solution, still, it does not solve the problem, as ignoring your condition will just make it harder to diagnosis and to treat.   Afterall, and we all agree, our health is our most precious capital. What if you could access healthcare services from the comfort of your home, without having to take a day off for a doctor visit and most importantly at an affordable price?

In fact, when considering an online visit, we profit from the following benefits:

-The online consultation’s price is lower than a visit to the emergency room or at a doctor’s office. In the United States for instance, it costs as high as $140 per visit to the emergency room while teleconsultations can be priced as low as $50 without a loss in quality, as online doctors have the same formation as the doctors you visit at the office.

-Consulting a doctor implicates driving a distance, making you lose time and money while teleconsultations can be conducted immediatly and from the comfort and privacy of your home.

-When diagnosing a condition early on, the chances for a fast recovery are higher while avoiding complications. The overall recurring cost, although harder to materialise, from complications and complex diagnosis is reduced and in certain cases, eliminated. In that sense, telemedicine encourages preventive medicine by trying to understand the causes of the medical condition rather than trying to hide its symptomes with drugs; doctor being physically distant from his patient will take the time to circle the problem and propose an indepth solution.

How do you foresee telemedicine and remote consultations in the near future? Do you see yourself as a potential user of such a service? Do you think remote consultations will become mainstream any time soon?

Experience shows that doctors are far from being early adopters, electronic health records (ER) being one of the most recent cases. However, the publication of a study of 222 patients about how webcams can help in decision making when someone shows up in a rural emergency suffering from a stroke. Doctors made the right decision in 98% of the time when using a webcam while they would make the right decision only 82% of the time over the phone.This report should convince that telemedicine is important, as it is not more than a technology gadget but a necessity that can save lifes.  

The consulsion that can be drawn from these results is that using video conferencing helps doctors in decision making, the right decision that can save a life, while it decreases the risk for patients. At TeleDoctor, these facts conforts us and shows that we are heading to the right path as we are developping the most compelling tool to help doctors in decision making as well as offer the best medical service for patients.

I was reading Scott Shreeve’s crossoverhealth blog the other night, and I stumbled upon maybe the most insightful article on IT and healthcare I read in the last couple weeks. He is stating that governments are spending more and more money in Telemedicine projects that use their proprietary network and hardware software. These guys have missed the train, and are doing an anachronism. Sadly, this article just clearly states the IT medical space is still taken from another perspective than other fields and is still in its infancy while it should clearly be mainstream nowadays. In fact, all technologies needed to support it are available.

But we need to not forget that people are driving the revolution themselves, by using web 2.0 tools to communicate, find information about health and wellness, and even practice auto diagnosis. People are then ready to use more advanced tools to perform other tasks, like auto managing their health, their medications intakes, and health in general. They also want to use these tools to talk to their doctors. 

Some startups have seized the opportunity, and are developing tools, using technology that has existed from some time now, to enhance patient experience with health care, making the end user happier and healthier.