Telemedicine

The editor believes that emerging technologies in telemedicine, including e-mail and the Internet, have the potential to create distance in the patient-physician relationship, and care must be taken to continue to strengthen the therapeutic bond.

An ethical case describes the use of a virtual consultation with a pediatric psychiatrist when a 6-year-old boy seen in the emergency room has injuries suspected to be due to child abuse.

Two doctrines are proposed for electronic medical records: one, to regulate the storage and exchange of data, and the other, to empower patients to choose who has access to their medical information.

When medical students are involved in patient care as part of their education and training, patients must be informed of their status and provide written or oral consent to be treated.

Bioinformatics, the use of information technology in relation to genetic data, has created a need for best-practice standards and/or guidelines in order to address issues of privacy, consent, individual access, and accountability.

The use of telemedicine technology, while convenient, can at times be inadequate, as shown in the portrait painting entitled The Doctor, where the physician stays at the bedside of a gravely ill child and offers his presence as comfort to the family.

A 1924 cover of a publication called Radio News showed the first glimpses into what medicine and the patient-physician relationship might look like in the future.

A Peace Corps physician in Africa describes in his latest online journal entry how the countries that could most benefit from telemedicine technologies are often unable to use it due to poor communications infrastructures.

Media stories about individual cases of human suffering encourage society to bring health care to geographically remote areas by investing in telemedicine technologies.

A corporate executive diagnosed with prostate cancer chooses his own preferred course of treatment based on information he researched on the Internet.

Patients are entering the clinical encounter with an unprecedented amount of information gathered from various sources, including the Internet.

Physicians can help choose technological tools to enhance end-of-life care if they carefully and specifically tailor the tools to the comfort levels and needs of each patient.

Little-known trivia about the use of digital technology.

Jay Sanders, a pioneer advocate and activist in the field of telemedicine, is recognized as a role model for his many contributions to innovative telemedicine technologies, particularly those designed to bring health care to rural and low-income families.