Re:Doctor tells patient he doesn't have long to live through...
by danso on Friday March 08, 2019 @02:09PM
(#19341021)
If the questions and discussion you have are hampered by what the parent commenter (and family in the article) describes as a shitty Skype connection, that may more than make up for the time purportedly saved by doing the talk remotely.
It's possible/likely that better technology will make this kind of remote interaction much more palatable and useful. But it's obvious that that better technology is not quite here, and yet the hospital seems to have OKed it, as if they were doing internal beta testing an experimental feature.
Re:Doctor tells patient he doesn't have long to live through...
by saboot on Friday March 08, 2019 @02:53PM
(#19341551)
I went through this recently with a family member, there were robots allowing specialists to review chart. There is always a hospitalist (doctor) on staff. The most appropriate way for the hospital to approach this topic is for the robot to consult with the hospitalist outside the room, and then have the hospitalist with end of care professionals have that discussion.
If my time on this earth is now measured in hours or days instead of years, every minute is precious. I don't want to wait for the doctor to drive in to the hospital. And I don't want to hear from a stand-in doctor who isn't familiar with my case. I have questions, and I need to compress both 1) acclimating to this new reality and 2) enjoying what remains of my life into a painfully short period.
Email is insufficiently interactive, but Skype is fine. I have family for emotional support, let me spend as much time as possible with them instead of waiting for test results.