Doctor 2.0

Waiting in the doctor’s surgery for your appointment has got to be one of life’s least pleasant activities. Not only do you generally have to wait about three times as long as you expect, you run the risk of catching any one of a number of diseases from the other waiting sickies in the room.

A GP in the US by the name of Dr. Jay Parkinson has seen the problem and done his bit to fix it by doing away with consulting rooms all together, according to Springwise. Instead he has set up a virtual shopfront and consults with his patients either remotely, by email, video chat or instant messaging, or in person at their home or work.

Convenient, yes, but there are a couple of limitations on the strategy. For one, you have to fork out $US500 a year to have access to Dr Jay’s services. With that you get an initial consultation plus two face-to-face visits, but if you need more during the year you have to pay extra. He also only treats people between the ages of 18 and 39 – in effect, skimming off the healthiest, and therefore most profitable, proportion of the population and leaving the rest to look after themselves.