Transformation of the health care industry by eMedicine: from low-tech low-touch to high-tech high-touch

The Physician Office Visit (POV) forms the core of health care in the USA. We consider how eMedicine can transform this foundation of health care. Can eMedicine technologies improve the efficiency of the POV, its effectiveness, or both? In the short run, we believe that there is a greater opportunity to improve effectiveness than to improve efficiency. In the long run, however, eMedicine technologies can transform POV in fundamental ways so as to make the traditional POV virtually unrecognizable. We explain how these transformations can take place, by examining how the physician, the office, and the visit, can each be transformed by these technologies. We also consider the limitations to such transformations.