Institute For The Future

Accepting Virtual House Calls

I usually try to avoid blogging about stories from the mainstream press, but this headline—"The Virtual Visit May Expand Access to Doctors"—in the New York Times confirmed a trend we have been following for the last few years.  It is a perfect example of how health care is moving out of clinical settings to new points of care, or "anytime, anyplace health." 

The article describes NowClinic, a service that will allow physicians to "see" patients remotely via video chat.  Forty-five dollars will get you a ten minute appointment with a doctor, whether or not you are insured.  (Note the similarity to the fee structure of retails health clinics, another example of anytime, anyplace health.) 

Telemedicine isn't an entirely new concept; in recent years, advances in technology have had a significant impact on the delivery of care to rural areas and developing countries.  However, the scale of NowClinic is different; OptumHealth plans to roll it out nationwide next year. OptumHealth, a division of UnitedHealthGroup, is one of the largest health and wellness companies in the country.

Time will tell whether NowClinic's approach to providing health care will ameliorate "some of the stresses on the system today, like wasted time dealing with appointments and insurance claims, a shortage of primary care physicians and limited access to care for many patients."  It will force the medical community to continue to re-evaluate its grip on the traditional model of care. Compare these quotes from doctors interviewed for the Times' article:

This is a pale imitation of a doctor visit. It’s basically saying, ‘We’re going to give up any pretense of examining the patient and most of the nonverbal clues that doctors use.’

NowClinic gives you the ability to have that gut feel if something is wrong, in tone or facial expression or body language, that you have when you walk in the door with a patient.

And my favorite:

The argument that you need the ‘laying on of hands’ to practice medicine is an old and tired argument that simply has no credibility.  There are two constants in medicine: change and resistance to change.

I am pretty sure that anytime, anyplace health is here to stay.  The medical community is going to have to figure out a way to accept this change.