But are e-visits as good as face-to-face consultation? A new study finds that they appear to result in decent diagnoses for common infections, while also saving time and money. The findings are in Archives of Internal Medicine. [Ateev Mehrotra et al., A Comparison of Care at E-Visits and Physician Office Visits for Sinusitis and Urinary Tract Infection]
Researchers analyzed some 5,000 doctor visits for sinus infections and 3,000 visits for urinary tract infection. Less than 10 percent of all visits were electronic. One possible e-visit drawback: doctors were more likely to prescribe antibiotics after an e-visit than a face-to-face. But patients with an e-visit had just about the same rate of follow up as those who had an office visit. Which suggests that there was not a higher rate of misdiagnosis or treatment failure online. E-visits were also cheaper.
—Katherine Harmon
