The Era of Telemedicine for Everyday Use is Coming...

In the not too recent past, physicians actually made house calls. And not too long ago by historical time, these calls were by horse and buggy to deliver babies, set fractures, and to attend to pain.

Health care has gone forward in many ways since then, but, sadly,  backwards in the way personal care is delivered. Now healthcare is with an insurance company in the way, 5 minute doctor visits, drugs poorly understood by the patient, and a growing epidemic of chronic diseases made worse by a “health care system."

In other words, It is a disease care system, not a health care system.

I think a big part of returning to a health care system  is bringing the relationship back that patients use to have with physicians: not for the purpose of prescribing drugs, but assessing health status and symptoms and seeking answers that are more behavioral with physician support.  Drugs are a last resort.

And the answer I see is telemedicine for primary care. Not only for rural, but urban. Downtown San Francisco and New York City. Patients are ready. Physicians are not.

So the patients need to drive the change. For less money yet more face time, a patient can have an appointment with a physician that knows them and who has physically examined them in the last year.

It is about personal care. It is about a Personal Care Physician (PCP).  

How to do this? This is the purpose of this discussion and “talk."