Fear, loathing, dermatology, and telemedicine

Change is not necessarily progress. Few physicians- and still fewer specialists-would characterize the wrenching changes occurring in health care over the past decade as progress. When is the last time you heard about a change in the provision of health care that gave providers more time, made practice more profitable, reduced paperwork, or made your life generally easier? Still thinking? So am I. Bad news of one sort or another has come in an unbroken stream for years now, or at least it seems that way. Payments to providers are continually reduced. Managed care has steadily reduced specialists' access to patients. The paperwork associated with referrals, billing, and laboratories continues to mount for most of us.