Explain what a "virtual house "call is. How dose this method compare with the traditional doctor's office

office visit in terms of patient-docotr relationship?How does it compare financially? What kind of interaction and information access does it provide to patients? is it something that interests you as a patient? if you were a caregiver, would it be beneficial to you?

an orhtopaedic surgeon in dryden or kenora ontario is doing this. all his after care checks are done using video conferencing, so he has more time to actually perform operations.

for a general practitioner I am not sure how well it would work.

what is needed are remote offices that patients can visit and where they would find a multimedia conference room where the doctor can accurately judge the patient's colour, temperature, heart beat etc.

this would require good cameras, specialized probes for temp, blood pressure, sound. would probably need a medical tech on-site to help.

to make it a virtual house call, the doctor would need to work with the patient and their own web-cam and rely on a trust relationship with a caregiver -like a parent -to take temperatures and report on the health status.

The virtual house call does not require much in the way of expense that the doctor does not already pay for -most doctors have broadband access and computers. but the reomote offices which may need to be staffed would be more expensive but the costs could be shared.