In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Lloyd B. Minor, MD, asserts that telemedicine may be the solution to getting reluctant patient populations to visit primary care physicians more regularly.
Dr. Minor, dean of Stanford (Calif.) University School of Medicine, acknowledges that the healthcare industry has not succeeded in convincing young people, especially men, to routinely visit their physician. To address this issue, Dr. Minor describes a program at Stanford called ClickWell Care.
Unlike many telemedicine programs, which focus on sporadic use, ClickWell Care allows users to choose to engage with their physician via phone, video or in-person consultations. The majority of participants, for example, tend to use an in-person appointment for an initial visit, but follow up with phone or video consultations.
"The audience that showed the most striking result was the one that's been hardest for physicians to reach: young men, who traditionally avoid doctors," according to Dr. Minor, adding that men were more likely than women to choose telemedicine for all of their care. "As we move toward a future of more personalized, preventive care, the potential of telemedicine lies in its promise of choice."