Getting healthcare, without getting out of bed

No one out there likes feeling under the weather. But on the occasions that they do feel ill, wouldn't it be nice if they could seek medical advice without stepping out of their house?

In telemedicine, clinical services or medical information is provided via the telephone, Internet or other communication networks. It's widely deemed most beneficial for delivering healthcare to populations residing in remote locations or isolated communities.

In recent years, its use has been extended to remotely monitor patients at home with the help of other devices such as blood pressure monitors, which transmit the relevant information back to the main healthcare provider.

But, telemedicine hasn't really made an impact in the mainstream healthcare system--at least, not yet in Singapore. When someone feels a bad cold coming up, he would still make a trip to a nearby clinic and seek medical advice face-to-face from a general practitioner.

Couple of days back, I developed a fever and had hoped that I would be able to sleep it off with an early night. Unfortunately, I woke up feeling more feverish than the night before.

So I took my temperature, saw that the thermometer read 38.7 degrees Celsius--the average body temperature is 36.9 degrees Celsius--and knew I definitely had a fever.

But, my head was throbbing, my entire body was aching and I was burning up. I didn't want to yank myself out of bed and drive myself to my family doctor, just to have her stick another thermometer under my tongue to confirm I have a fever and send me back home with a round of antibiotics.

While the drive to the clinic would take less than 10 minutes, it would have felt like an eternity if your head was pounding like it got hit with a sledgehammer.

But, I still dragged myself out of bed, got dressed and drove to the clinic--with that sledgehammer on my head. Thank goodness for the school hols, I didn't have to wait more than 15 minutes--when it usually takes an hour--to see my doctor. She then dutifully put a thermometer under my tongue, exclaimed with genuine sympathy about my high temperature, and prescribed a round of antibiotics.

She's a great doctor, but it would have been great if she could have done all that without my needing to make a trip physically to her clinic.

After all, I could have taken my own temperature and showed her the thermometer reading over a Web cam. And if she needed to check whether I had any rash on my body--to eliminate signs of Dengue fever--I could also have showed her that over a Web cam.

She could then prepare a prescription for my medication, which my parents could have picked up for me, and e-mail an e-medical certificate to my HR officer back in the office, to validate I needed two days' medical leave.

If my fever persisted, I would then drag my burning hot butt--pun intended--down to her clinic for a thorough checkup.

I wouldn't suggest telemedicine works for everyone...some of us would still prefer the personal touch and be better assured if they have some face-to-face time with their family doctor.

But, for others like me who don't mind bypassing this personal touch, especially for minor or non-critical illnesses, it would be great if we were given an additional avenue to choose the type of healthcare service we want.

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Eileen Yu

Eileen Yu began covering the IT industry when Asynchronous Transfer Mode was still hip and e-commerce was the new buzzword. These days, she gets stirred up over issues concerning Internet regulation, intellectual property rights and software patents, online privacy and data protection. Eileen is senior editor at ZDNet Asia, where she oversees the business tech news site.