title: Tips for telephone and electronic medical consultation.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Ashna Children's Hospital, Uttara CHS Ltd, off Marve Road, Malad West, Mumbai, India, secgeniap1213@iapindia.org.
authors.forename: Sailesh G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Gupta
mesh_terms: D003219:Confidentiality; D034742:Electronic Mail; D004582:Electronics, Medical; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D019114:Remote Consultation / Q000379:methods*; D017216:Telemedicine
references.citation: Am J Bioeth. 2003 Summer;3(3):W-IF2
references.pmid: 14735881
references.citation: Paediatr Child Health. 2010 Mar;15(3):163-8
references.pmid: 21358897
references.citation: J Gen Intern Med. 1998 Sep;13(9):579-85
references.pmid: 9754512
references.citation: JAMA. 1998 Oct 21;280(15):1333-5
references.pmid: 9794313