The News Herald Online doctor visits are becoming increasingly popular but local physicians are concerned about Internet-based medical practice. But I prefer to limit its use to giving information, like what causes cancer or diabetes. Patient education is important because it helps their understanding of diseases so compliance to treatment increases, he said. Some of these sites do not charge a fee or even require insurance, a huge plus in today's managed care system. And the sites have various specialties represented under one roof.
Patients simply log-on and talk to an anonymous doctor.
A few websites might allow their doctors to give diagnoses or prescriptions after an online conversation. Adhal said this could lead to a dangerous way of treating patients. But it's reasonable to make routine adjustments to someone's treatment over the Web only if the patient-doctor relationship is established, and only if the doctor knows how a patient is responding to a certain treatment. He said the technology still is not advanced enough to allow doctors to examine patients through the Internet. But both Adhal and Daube resort to e-mail and their own websites to help patients.