Virtual doctor visits are rapidly gaining popularity these days as more health insurers offer telemedicine services to help cut costs. Studies have shown that virtual care may effectively used to treat common problems such as flu, acne or urinary tract infections. Video doctor consultations can save patients a lot in time and convenience. At $40-50 they typically cost approximately the same as a traditional doctor consultation co-pay so it’s quite affordable
It’s really simple, all you need to do is just sign up and you’re ready to go.
Then you have to select a doctor, and he or she can answer questions, assess your condition and even provide a prescription (which you can pick up at the nearest pharmacy store) After log in you’ll see a list of doctors, mostly they are available 24/7.
As we can see on TrustPilot – link below, there is over 6k positive feedback in UK. https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/onlinedoctor.superdrug.com?page=2
Below you can find short advertisement of online consultation:
I previously experienced similar consultation and I was very happy with the quality of the service I received. When I was travelling to the United Kingdom couple of years ago I got a very bad eye infection. I picked up a phone called my insurance company and after short waiting time I was transferred to the relevant practitioner. The person on the phone was very friendly and made me feel very comfortable. I explained over a phone what was wrong with my eye, then doctor made some conclusions and advised I should go to the hospital as the matter was very serious. My insurance company helped me to organise a taxi which took me straight to the relevant person. I was treated very quickly and with a good effect.
From my own experience I can easily say this kind of service is really good and might help to save a lot of time. Unfortunately my issue was too serious but practitioner was very helpful. Coupled with the quick response from the insurance company my treatment was quick and easy.
Questions:
1. What do you think about such way of treatment/diagnosis?
2. Would you try if it will be available in Poland?
3. Do you find any other disadvantages?
It’s really simple, all you need to do is just sign up and you’re ready to go.
Then you have to select a doctor, and he or she can answer questions, assess your condition and even provide a prescription (which you can pick up at the nearest pharmacy store) After log in you’ll see a list of doctors, mostly they are available 24/7.
As we can see on TrustPilot – link below, there is over 6k positive feedback in UK. https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/onlinedoctor.superdrug.com?page=2
Below you can find short advertisement of online consultation:
I previously experienced similar consultation and I was very happy with the quality of the service I received. When I was travelling to the United Kingdom couple of years ago I got a very bad eye infection. I picked up a phone called my insurance company and after short waiting time I was transferred to the relevant practitioner. The person on the phone was very friendly and made me feel very comfortable. I explained over a phone what was wrong with my eye, then doctor made some conclusions and advised I should go to the hospital as the matter was very serious. My insurance company helped me to organise a taxi which took me straight to the relevant person. I was treated very quickly and with a good effect.
From my own experience I can easily say this kind of service is really good and might help to save a lot of time. Unfortunately my issue was too serious but practitioner was very helpful. Coupled with the quick response from the insurance company my treatment was quick and easy.
Questions:
1. What do you think about such way of treatment/diagnosis?
2. Would you try if it will be available in Poland?
3. Do you find any other disadvantages?
Comments
In my opinion the problem is it wouldn't be possible to touch a patient so if the doctor is not sure what may be wrong you will have to go and see him anyway. So it's a waste of time then, because you could have just gone to the doctor.
Of course, when someone's sickness is serious, doctor still needs to see you, but when you've got flu or cold, it is very good solution.
On the other hand, real consultation may be worse than such visit - sometimes doctors don't ask additional questions to check what's wrong: once, when I was at doctors I said, that I've got sore throat and no high fever. Doctor just looked at it and recommended tea with raspberry juice. Week later, I went with same problem but to another doctor - bronchitis.
In most cases interview with patient is the most important. But still - I believe that doctor should see and hear what's wrong. Maybe questionnaire before visit? To make visit quicker?
I think online doctor maybe usefull only in situations like where access to doctor directly is quite impossible at the moment and online doctors can be a source of a great relief.
I agree with most of what you've said, however in my opinion patients waste way more time queuing up to see a doctor with a simple symptoms such as sore throat, cough or headache.
While the phone call consultation takes about 15 minutes.
Coming back to the general thesis, that's what it basically is, a questionnaire. After this a consultant decides if you need to see a relevant doctor in person.
On a serious note, I think it is a great way of dealing with "nothing serious" casuses. Saves time and money, very efficent if you are having just a simple case of flu which is easy to conclude.
Great and all but such service should always guarantee to take a patient to a doctor in real world in case of even small doubts about the illness. We could expand it (and I think I've heard about it before) with specialized equipment, devices that gather data about our health, make various measurements and send it to the doctor over the wire. I don't think it will replace seeing doctor face to face but it's a great way to loosen up the queues and make dealing with obvious aches effective.
According to situation in Poland, this method can be extremely good and it could help to regain financial stability/situation because virtual visits would be cheaper for clinics and hospitals and such places. If it was possible, personally I would say I would try this kind of treatment. But I can also say that main disadvantage is that doctor cannot see you in real life and do standard diagnosis which is preceded by some medical examination.
1. History in detail
2. Physical examination
3. Simple physical tests
4. Investigations
In online consultations only first thing is possible that too 50% only… doctor can't focus on patient from somewhere.
Remaining points are not possible resulting in:
1. Misdiagnosis
2 Under diagnosis
3.Wrong medications
I'm an allergic person so I often go to allergist/dermatologist just to get the same prescription all the time, it's quite irritating that when I know what kind of drug I have to use I need to get the prescription from specific doctor. That's why online doctor visit looks great for me.
Such form of contact with a doctor could work when we're curious about something regarding medicine and we can't find a satisfying answer on the internet, but not when we're feeling sick. Another thing that could work is asking a doctor online to interpret our blood test results and stuff like that, but it shouldn't replace actually going to the doctor.