"Imagine the ease. It’s 2 a.m. and you can’t stop thinking about your saggy midsection. You log on to SurgeonHouseCall.com and create a free patient profile declaring your wish to get a tummy tuck. You fill out a brief medical history and include photographs of the problem area.
In no time, three plastic surgeons offer detailed opinions on the best course of action — with price quotes. It’s as if SurgeonHouseCall.com co-opted the LendingTree slogan, “When banks compete, you win.”
In less than a year, SurgeonHouseCall.com has recruited 55 plastic surgeons nationwide to offer opinions. Meanwhile, dozens of plastic surgeons also offer virtual consultations on their own Web sites. But does a patient who gets a plastic surgeon’s recommendation before a face-to-face visit really “win?” Conservative plastic surgeons say it’s fine to send an e-mail message with general information about a range of procedures to a patient, but the practice of offering a diagnosis without ever having met a patient can be problematic.
What’s more, offering a surgical recommendation to a distant patient may violate state laws, if the plastic surgeon isn’t licensed in the home state of the patient, according to the Federation of State Medical Boards, a nonprofit group representing 70 boards in the United States and its territories.
Critics also say that patients’ poor-quality pictures don’t provide doctors with adequate information. And patients seldom realize that no virtual recommendation is solid without an office consultation and medical clearance." ~ Click here to read the full article from NYtimes.com
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