Tips for telephone and electronic medical consultation.

The world is gradually shrinking in terms of time, and communications, while expanding in terms of population and distances. Patients demand and expect telephone and e-mail consultations and medical professionals are only too happy to oblige. However, a telephone consult is never so satisfying for the patients and well as the doctor as a face consult. Besides much essential information, cues and clues to diagnosis may be missed only with an audio input from patients. A telephone consult should be offered only to know the patient, and only after a prior face consult. It should be ensured that the patient can definitely understand, and follow the directions, and manage the disorder at home. While a telephone consultation may be considered convenient and short, there may be several disadvantages of such consultation, a wrong diagnosis and an inappropriate prescription being just two of them. Telephone etiquette should be followed by the staff and the physician. A triage system may be set up to filter calls that need to be necessarily answered by the physician himself. Telephone consults should be charged, and should be followed by a face consult as soon as possible. E-mail consultations are governed essentially by the same principles that govern telephone consultations. There is a slight advantage of e-mail consultation in that reports can be submitted online, including radiological reports. However, confidentiality is an important and uncertain issue in cyber space. A memorandum of understanding maybe signed between the patient and the physician. The information provided on e-mail should be of a general nature and a face consult should precede e-mail consultation. Patients may be referred to web resources for information. Telemedicine is a useful tool to obtain a medical diagnosis and to provide medical advice, and is likely to be used vastly in the near future.