E-mailing Your Doctor: Check-In Your Health Online

Traditional health, wellness, and professional doctor practices allow patients to interact with doctors only at the clinic or through a receptionist. The web may be changing that considerably, as more doctors are allowing e-mail communications and online health checklists available to their patients. Today’s wave of software and websites geared towards resources for health and ongoing healthcare, are allowing people to interact and communicate with both doctors and nurses at a new level.

Beyond the appointment with the doctor, however, health concerns can go awry without the proper followup, diagnoses measures, and even support groups. Following up with a doctor directly can take weeks, if not months, depending on the condition. Today’s patient-doctor correspondence may improve. The New York Times offers some perspective on the subject in ‘Take Two Aspirins, E-Mail Me Tomorrow’ “Several times a day, Dr. Tom Delbanco sits in front of his computer, opens his e-mail, and fields questions from his patients. . . In an age of palmtop computers, wireless Internet and instant messaging, more and more doctors are using e-mail to work with their patients.”
(New York Times, April 27, 2004)