12 January 2003
A world of cyberdoctors & tele-clinics
Among the speakers at the Royal Society of Medicine's Telemed '03 (29-30 January):
A new way to treat eating disorders
Dr Susan Simpson & colleagues, Royal Cornhill Hospital
Aberdeen, - A multi-disciplinary approach to the treatment
of eating disorders via videoconferencing
Bulimia, anorexia and binge-eating is a problem in remote
and rural areas as well as in large urban centres - in the
Grampian region, which includes Orkney and Shetland, there
are about 200 new referrals each year. Dr Simpson will report
on her pilot study in this area to get treatment to young
patients at risk in even the most remote parts of Scotland.
Working with the Scottish Telemedicine Action Forum, therapists
used videoconferencing to successfully help young girls with
a range of eating disorders. Those with bulimia showed the
most improvement after videotherapy.
How outpatient time could be reduced by 75%
Dr Malcolm Clarke & colleagues, Brunel University,
- Impact on consultation time of telemedicine
"Tele-clinics" can reduce the number of outpatient appointments
needed by 75%, according to a new two-year study to be presented
by Dr Clarke and colleagues at Brunel. They looked at a telemedicine
system in a Chorleywood GP practice, where district nurses
relay medical history and digital images of selected patients
directly to the appropriate hospital consultant. They then
arrange tele-clinics between nurse, consultant and patient
to discuss treatment and aftercare. Results also showed that
tele-clinics free up consultants' time to see more patients,
with the average length of consultation falling from an average
of 15 minutes to 10 minutes. The authors suggest that "the
impact of these findings has far-reaching consequences."
Can doctors be sued for treating people via the internet?
Ross D Silverman, SIU School of Medicine, Springfield,
IL, USA, - Current legal and ethical concerns in Telemedicine
and eMedicine
One of the reasons telemedicine has not fully taken off
even in the US is because there are so many questions about
legal and ethical issues, Mr Silverman, an attorney, will
suggest. He will point out five major areas that must be resolved
before patients and doctors can really benefit from the potential
of eMedicine. These include the fact that so far doctors cannot
agree on what makes an online doctor-patient relationship
ethical, or how to be sure a patient is giving 'informed consent'
over the internet. Besides privacy concerns and costs, he
will also look at the legal issues - in the US, doctors are
already concerned about whether their insurance will cover
lawsuits on "cyber-malpractice".
[ends]
