A large number of Americans are ready, willing and able to use tablets and mobile phones for a convenient checkup with the doctor, instead of cooling their heals in a traditional doctor’s waiting room, according to a recent poll. Will Dr. iPad be accepted by the AMA?
The survey, released on Tuesday by the Harris Interactive/HealthDay company, shows that more than one-third of online respondents are decidedly interested in using their social media connection to receive test results, make medical appointments and even consult with medical professionals directly online.
A similar number reported being extremely anxious to use their tablets or smartphones to monitor health conditions, such as blood pressure and blood sugar, and then having a medical professional make a diagnosis right then and there. It is already possible for doctors to order prescriptions for patients online so they need only go to their pharmacy and pick up the prescribed medication without any hardcopy from the prescriber.
Healthcare professionals can no longer ignore the rising tide of demand for better and quicker service, which can be made possible by going digital. How long this process is going to take is still up in the air.
Chairman Henry Taylor, of the Harris Poll, asserts that cyber-medicine is already here, and is ready to expand exponentially in the next decade. Medical service companies are already gearing up to join the Internet Age; they are waiting for the technology to catch up with their interest.
Taylor says the devil will be in the details of starting up such far-reaching technology, with its attendant concern for privacy issues.
The healthcare system in the United States is still a “patchwork”, according to Titus Shleyer at the Regenstrief Institute of Purdue University in Indianapolis, Indiana. The efficiency of the Internet can only help.