Saturday, January 26, 2008

May I please E-mail my Doctor?

An impassioned health care provider, at Efficient MD, wrote a great article, essentially E-mail my Doctor talks about how helpful working on a global plan to communicate in the health care industry will help patients and providers alike.

Yes, Yes, Yes!! I am a health care professional, who relates to this article fervently.

I work in a health care organization which has an internal “system” of e-mail, of which the user must laboriously register, await a lengthy password ad nausea via snail mail, and then switch the password to something memorable. Finally, the job of trying to utilize the site working around the inevitable flaws, which are difficult to overcome, given limited support site resources.

Let’s face it: Someday, the medical world will be globally connected, and communication between physicians, specialists, health professionals and ancillary staff, as well as our patients, will be seamless. Let’s just start with e-mail, and see how this goes.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Internet, instant global communication is a godsend but not without its inevitable security problems. However, I think the good out weights the bad.

My doc carries his laptop into the examining room to view my past history, previous tests, and meds. If a new script is required, it is faxed to my pharmacy before i leave.

Great experience for both of us, I think. If I could just hook up a webcam so I didn't actually have to go into the office, that would be even better. That may be a few years away, though.