It's great to hear, via a paper presented at a recent conference, that it's possible to deliver excellent health care to people with Parkinson's via video link. Telemedicine might help bridge the accessibility gap that I've seen seen here in rural northern New England. People who reside in the Bennington, Vt., area, for example, are about as far away from Boston as they are from Burlington.
This is great news for the patient, but what about the doctors? Caseloads for many motion disorder experts are already high. How would an influx of new cases be managed?
I could see the MDS assuming more frequently a consulting role, a second-opinion source, to a telemedicine session originating from the office of the patient's primary care provider. I don't want to see this technology used to increase bill-able throughput. We risk burning out more doctors that way, and then everyone loses.
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/704528?src=rss
