EVERY CITIZEN A MEDICAL DOCTOR – AT 8:35 A.M. ET:   We joyously bring you new developments in the inspiring progress of Britain's National Health Service, the role model for many who believe Obamacare will truly mean the end of both death and wasteful practices.  From Britain's Daily Mail:

Patients are to be told to examine themselves at home and email their GP with the results rather than meeting face to face.

They would send in a short message describing symptoms which would be answered by a doctor between appointments or at the end of the working day.

Those with long-term conditions such as heart failure, diabetes or lung disease could even be asked to measure their own blood pressure, glucose levels and temperature, sending the results to the surgery.

Ministers want to cut ‘unnecessary’ appointments in the hope of saving up to £1billion a year while at the same time allowing GPs to devote their attention to the most seriously ill.

Nothing like allowing government ministers the power to decide even how people are seen at a doctor's office.

Thousands of patients in England have already been issued with handheld devices and asked to send in their own measurements to their surgeries. But leading doctors are worried about the ‘remote’ diagnosis plans and fear life-threatening illnesses will be missed.

The British Medical Association has warned that standards of care will be jeopardised and GPs will be forced to spend much of their day answering emails rather seeing patients.

COMMENT:  If adopted here, we truly will become the iPhone society.

Now, it is true that handheld devices might prove very useful in transmitting data, especially in an emergency.  But I wonder how much of the doctor's time will actually be saved in Britain by this scheme.  The doctor still has to analyze the data, examine the patient's records, and, in all probability, flash back some questions for the patient.  You know, I think I'd rather be sitting in the doctor's office.

Welcome to our brave new world.

January 24, 2011