Too bad that litigation worries are impeding technological advances in medicine. All the more reason why e-consults and internet communication with patients won’t be embraced in the US:

For medical malpractice attorney Veronica Richards of Pittsburgh’s Richards & Richards, a former nurse practitioner, the increased use of virtual house calls is cause for concern. Internet communication doesn’t offer the clarity and directness of a face-to-face diagnosis, she warned, which could lead to a misdiagnosis, a catastrophic outcome — and litigation.

“My concern is more the ‘Hey, my foot hurts, it looks purple to me,’ and somebody tells you to elevate your foot when really you need emergency surgery,” Richards said. “In med-mal, what opens the floodgates [to lawsuits] is very catastrophic results that were avoidable.”

Richards said that virtual house calls can “fill a need, but there’s a lot of unsophisticated consumers who don’t know what to tell you. You really kind of have to ask the right questions. I can see that being a real problem,” Richards said.

(via Overlawyered)