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Speaker: Physicians should provide hands-on care, not rely on remote monitoring technology
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CHICAGO — Physicians have a duty to treat the entire patient with care and compassion, a speaker said here.
Abraham Verghese, MD, physician, author and professor of the theory and practice of medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine, gave the keynote address during the opening ceremony of the joint meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Asia-Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology.
Abraham Verghese
Tele-medicine, or remote monitoring of patients, is a poor substitute for caring for the patient directly, Verghese said.
“The real patient is in the computer,” Verghese said. “You know your iPhone, your iPad? You now have an iPatient. The iPatient is getting wonderful care across America. The real patient often wonders, ‘Where is everyone? Who’s coming to see me? What’s going on? When will I be informed?’ We have a real gap between what the patient receives and the wondrous technology of our era.”
As an example, Verghese cited internal medicine rounds at a Boston hospital, where patients are monitored remotely.
“Everyone is there, except perhaps the most important person: The patient is not there,” Verghese said. “We lose the ability to diagnose the low-hanging fruit that we should be diagnosing.”
Physicians should care for patients and be available to address patients’ cares and concerns, he said.
Disclosure: No products or companies are mentioned that would require financial disclosure.