Introduction of the Term " Webside " to Refer to Telemedicine Interactions

I am a great fan of telemedicine. There are many kinks that need to be worked out in the deployment of large-scale telemedicine systems. However, this will be the most important response to the need to deliver quality healthcare on a much larger scale. One aspect of this shift in healthcare is the development of a new vocabulary to describe various aspects of patient-provider interactions on the web. A recent article addressed one of these jargon issues (see:At the'webside'):When Kaiser Permanente's emergency room wait times began rising three years ago, Dr. Dennis Truing and a colleague launched a telemedicine program to provide faster access to care for their patients (see:Innovations: Kaiser tests video visits to cut waits). At the time, there weren't many training programs for telemedicine or for developing good “webside” manner, which can greatly improve patients' adherence to treatment. Instead, Truing had to learn on the fly....Like its cousin “bedside manner,” webside manner is a key skill for clinicians involved in telemedicine, experts say. Physicians must proffer an empathetic and compassionate presence to calm fears and provide hope for patients who may be suffering from serious or even not-so-serious illness...[B]edside manner can have a statistically significant impact on patient health, affecting the incidence of obesity, asthma, diabetes, hypertensio...
Source: Lab Soft News - Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Tags: Healthcare Business Healthcare Delivery Healthcare Information Technology Hospital Executive Management Medical Consumerism Medical Education Quality of Care Source Type: blogs