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COPYRIGHT 2002 Consumers Union of the United States, Inc.
When Chris Olney learned that he had a thyroid disorder, he was already back home when he thought of the question he most wanted to ask his doctor. "So I e-mailed him," says Olney, who lives in Wenham, Mass., and arranges financing for housing projects. Within a day his doctor answered his questions and referred him to relevant web sites.
Connie Post, who has a disease that requires periodic blood tests, e-mailed her doctor about follow-up care. "I reminded him that I needed blood work done," says Post, a research analyst who lives in Middletown, Conn. The doctor e-mailed back that he had authorized the test; Post went to the lab to have it done. A few days later he e-mailed her the results plus a prescription, which she filled via her online pharmacy.
Beth Segel, an electrical engineer living in Dana Point, Calif., took e-mail one step further. "I was nine months pregnant when I developed a rash," Segel says. "The last thing I wanted was a 25-mile car ride to my doctor's office." So her husband took a digital photo and e-mailed it to her doctor, along with her very detailed description of her history and symptoms. The doctor identified the rash as an apparently minor food reaction and said she could wait for her scheduled appointment in two days unless the rash spread or got worse.
E-mails are part of the growing reliance on computer-based communications that is changing the way many patients relate to their doctors. "Online communication offers so many potential benefits--convenience, cost savings, even improved care--it's almost inevitable that patients and doctors will do more and more business by e-mail," says Tom Ferguson, M.D.,...
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