Internet based medical rounds

Not really that into the idea of my proctology exam being beamed direct into the Israeli/ British and/or NSA spy centers via the Transatlantic cable.

Sounds like the basis for a good idea. Would require a lot of development but could potentially save healthcare costs as well as improving outcomes for patients. I can imagine, say, inexperienced parents with a small child with a fever reporting symptoms and receiving advice using a tablet (No pun intended) all instantaneously for very low cost.

"One solution maybe to try to keep them out of hospital unless absolutely needed."

I'm pretty sure that hospitals already do this.

@cohenglass "Not really that into the idea of my proctology exam being beamed direct into the Israeli/ British and/or NSA spy centers via the Transatlantic cable."

A lot of this type of internet integration needs to be prefaced with some form of Internet Legislation/Constitution to protect the private information of an individual.

Privacy of health information:
There already is the National Drug Intelligence Bureau which is a tripartite organisation of Customs ( border cops ), Cops, and cop liaison people / IT analysts in NZ Health ( basically still just cops ) - this allows for all three organisations to share your medical data fairly unimpeded because of its top secrecy.

@hugheldredgrigg

I’m pretty sure that hospitals already do this.

Actually I think that it depends on the time of the year.
Fall ill now in winter or around the holidays and they will almost roll you out of bed.
But in other times of the year they won't discharge you for a variety of reasons.
My guess is that they wan't to show the DHB or health dept that they are busy 365 days of the year, and advance there budget process. remember hospitals in NZ don't make money with empty beds.

@colindavies Even in summer, they're mostly keeping people for observation. And I don't really see a problem with this - sure, a lot of the time it's unnecessary, but in the unlikely event of a relapse or unforseen complication it's a big help if you're already in the hospital.

@hugheldredgrigg
I think we are agreed it is best to be hospitalized in the summer then.
However I still believe in many cases better care can be given with the addition of the Internet. I emphasis the word 'addition'. Sure you wouldn't want very remote patients to be reliant on the Internet. However I believe come winter the hospitals triage system is under severe pressure to admit every body that needs to be admitted.
Some of the disasters surrounding meningococcal cases would support this. However this still is a more a triage problem. I find it difficult to believe that when a person still turns up at an A&E they aren't monitored electronically from the time they enter the door. Instead they could die in the waiting room.

Using remote tools for diagosis is common in places with varying levels of access to medical care. Whether it's large areas, like Africa, or small areas within larger developed countries (Europe, The Americas, Australia, and NZ).

Remote diagnosis allows for quicker diagnosis for better treatments.

It doesn't have to be "The Internet". We could look at opening up a "private" network, so that any listening by foreign governments is done with full knowledge of ours. I was thinking KAREN/REANNZ, as this use would fall under their charter.

Good idea, I fully support this scheme. It would save heaps of problems for sick people. and it would save heaps of money.

Online support for addiction is huge, 40 million people in long term recovery, 23 million in the USA alone , i think alot of mental health support could be done online in NZ, i started a group called Recovery road adventure for addiction on Facebook two years ago here in NZ , I've got 8600 members , we encourage healthy living