For a mere $10, Hawaiian residents with 'net access and a webcam or text chat will be able to "talk" directly to their doctors about medical problems.
Beginning January 15th, a partnership between Hawaii Medical Service Association, the state’s Blue Cross-Blue Shield licensee, and web service American Well will allow the plan's 700,000 members to make 10-minute "face-to-face" appointments. (Uninsured patients must pay $45.)
Because patients don't waste time waiting for an appointment and driving to the clinic, the service is particularly useful in cases of potentially serious conditions. An online doctor can give a general diagnosis and recommend emergency room or specialist treatment immediately, rather than leaving them to wait and wonder.
"It's a better iteration on, 'Take two aspirin and call me in the morning,'" a family doctor on Oahu told the New York Times.
The service is also useful for patients that need medication refills, follow-up consultations after surgery, or those who are elderly and homebound.
American Well uses a service from a subsidiary of Aetna to scan patients' medical histories — managed by the 10-month-old Microsoft HealthVault service — for gaps in previous care, then passes that data to the doctor with whom they've made a virtual appointment.
Critics of the system believe doctors can't fully gauge a condition based on a 10-minute webcam visit, and may be more likely to misdiagnose. It is nearly impossible to tell, for instance, if a sore throat is a virus or a strep infection, without a physical appointment. Still others point out that the necessary equipment (broadband connection, webcam) may not be accessible to the poor and uninsured.
Nonetheless, some 36% of physicians now communicate with patients online — up from 19% five years ago — according to a November study.
And whether or not a doctor's available at the point of a mouse, the afflicted increasingly turn to the internet to self-diagnose their own symptoms. Of the 56% of American adults that sought information about a personal health concern from a source besides their doctor, 32% went online.
