Medical Consultations With Webcams Extremely Successful
“Doctors are far from being early adopters, so they have just gotten around to publishing a report that webcams help immensely with making the right decision when someone shows up to a rural emergency room suffering from a stroke. Using clot-destroying medications like alteplase is really risky, and it should only be given in acute cases. In a study of 222 patients, rural ER doctors consulted with faraway stroke specialists. They made the right decision 98 percent of the time when the expert examined the patient with a webcam, and only 82 percent of the time when they just talked to each other on the phone. Perhaps this report will finally convince the medical community that telemedicine is important.”