People Sponsors Co-chair's message Happening 5.31 Esther Dyson, George Lundberg, Mitch Kapor and Bill T. Jones. At left is keynote speaker Dr. Tom Ferguson. Photo by John Bohn. With healthcare information available online 365 days a year, the patient in cyberspace no longer relies solely on routine appointments with his or her physician, said David Cochran, of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, at a panel Tuesday. David Eisenberg, from Harvard Medical School, said five out of 10 American adults are using the Internet for more information on heath care, and some 600 million are using e-mail to reach offices of providers, a step that has let the patient guide the doctor, rather than follow the doctor's dictates.
Patients have no access to our labs.
While Eisenberg saw this kind of information as the way to revolutionize doctor-patient roles, Joseph Henderson, from Dartmouth Medical School, suggested Websites need to go beyond the usual brochures of information. He said the Internet is an exciting tool that will bring him closer to his patients. At right is Dr. Joseph V. Henderson, director of the Interactive Medical Laboratory at Dartmouth Medical School. Holly Jimison, a doctor with WebMD, could not agree more when she said that no business model exists that can open the floodgates to talk to physicians 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Technology is not adapted to the tight routine of the doctor who may not have the time to update information at the end of the day.