Cutting Edge Issues
Internet-Enhanced Physician Practices

Deploying a PACS: Issues to consider

Application Service Provider PACS: Analyzing Costs of Service

eHealth:
Towards A New World of Communications in Medicine

Case Study Zone
St Paul Radiology Goes Filmless

Who is eMed?
Mission Statement
Customer Base
Partnerships
Product Offerings
Support Services

Internet-Enhanced Physician Practices

Part 4

Physicians would be wise to remember that the patient patient no longer exists; patients have become health care consumers, and their patience has reached its limit. The baby-boom generation will end the era of willingness to wait for health care services, and efficiency enhancements of all types will be needed.

Underlying these changes is the Internet phenomenon, which has had an influence of unprecedented enormity. Its impact might even challenge that of the printing press. The use of email alone has been revolutionary. All physicians should expect to exchange email with their patients in the near future, if they are not already doing so. Consumers will demand secure email connections with their physicians. Not every physician is enthusiastic about this prospect, but email remains the most efficient way of time-shifting requests. It is definitely superior to answering services, and it creates a new bond with patients; it also allows queries to be handled more efficiently through routing to the scheduling desk, triage nurse, physician, or billing department, as needed. Priority can be assigned to replies as warranted, making requests from patients easier to manage.

The email vehicle that was the Internet’s beginning became an information-retrieval entity with the appearance of the World Wide Web. Users did more than look up web-published information, however; they formed online communities based on their common interests and concerns. For example, 80% of all US residents in whom hepatitis C has been diagnosed have visited the online disease community for hepatitis C at least once. Ecommerce has also grown rapidly. For physicians, this may be in the form of group buying power for medical supplies, telecommunications, and computers. After purchasing became established on the Internet, transactions such as investments and banking activities followed.

The email, information, ecommerce, and transaction capabilities of the Internet are only part of its influence. It has the ability to transform the entire health care industry. What is meant by health management today will be completely rethought: disease-state management, specialty-specific triage services, and other precursors of intervention in the health-care process are the first steps toward this change. Patients will become more informed, taking preventive as well as therapeutic care of themselves. The ultimate goal of this consumerism is to make the physician a consultant to the patient.