WP: Physicians Use Photos From Patients' Cell Phones to Guide Healthcare

The Washington Post on Aug 31, 2010, published an interesting story where emergency physicians at George Washington Medical Center enabled patients to take a picture of their wound on their cell phone and transmit it to the ER where a physician will take a look and come up with diagnosis and appropriately triage the patient.

In this study, they found that 90% of diagnosis made by this method came out accurate!

What many people may not realize is that some form of "online" consultation including pictures is already being used by physicians including our practice!

At least in our practice, for security purposes, a patient can email us WITH picture attachment using our online email form. This technically can be done via cell phone, but must occur via our website.

Our practice has received over 100 emails in the past 6 months since it was first offered, 25% of which contained picture attachments (typically CT or MRI images).

Read the Washington Post article here.

Check out our email submission form here.