Could Health Websites Eliminate the Need for Healthcare?

The Internet is a phenomenon, but can it actually replace healthcare as we know it? I was thinking about this and realized that with as many blogs and health-related websites that are out here today, the healthcare industry could be turned on its ear. We may not need premiums and co-pays any more; we may just need a username and a password. Could you imagine it? Your child wakes up at 2am with a migraine headache... instead of going to the doctor, paying for a trip to the emergency room, and then going to a pharmacy filling a prescription, imagine doing all of this at the convenience and quickness of a few clicks on your computer. Talking to a doctor through a chat room, relaying the symptoms, comparing with records, giving an analysis... all without seeing a person (but that could be possible) or leaving home or putting on one of those backwards robes they make you change into.

I think healthcare needs a revolution and maybe technology is the way it will happen. Have you ever been the website webmd.com? It's basically a health portal on the Internet. It has this google-like format of a simple search box and you type in the health-related query and it returns a number of results that may suit your needs. The world of healthcare may be coming to a format like this. Perhaps you've visited CNN's health channel? This is an elaborate piece of software, it's not a website! Here you have videos of health, top health stories from across the country, health blogs, community forums, Q&A with a number of on-staff doctors based on expertise... a company that has doctors on staff just to answer your health questions, imagine that... all this in ONE place. Why go to a specialist when I can just go to a website?

Better yet, let's say I don't have a healthcare plan, or someone in my family doesn't have a healthcare plan... but we can get a computer! Going to these health websites will be our health plan, as long as we don't need anything major and keep ourselves in good shape, all we need are routine checkups and the occasional consultation every now and again, right? I mean that's what most Americans need isn't it? Just a routine checkup every now and then. Maybe an aspirin for a headache, some antacid for an upset stomach, we can even makeshift a splint for a broken finger if we really needed to... some of us know how to rough it. We've been roughing it now without healthcare, why not get advice from a website - they're real doctors aren't they? They have years of experience? I may not can pay $500 or $700 a month for my family to be covered, but I can pay $19.95 a month to have high-speed internet. If the children need prescriptions I'll still come out with a hefty profit at the end of the month. No waiting, no hassle, no receptionists with bad days... just a computer, the comforts of home, and a hope that I'll actually be able to get the answers I need and that the website will actually be up and running when I need it to be.

Now, let's be realistic. I definitely don't believe that health websites can fix everything that's wrong with people. If that were the case, a lot more hospitals will be shut down. We still need hospitals for surgeries, chemotherapy treatments, advanced procedures, applying casts, storing medicines, and things of that nature. We can't do everything from the computer. For some things we do need people, although for some it's the people that are the reason why going to see a doctor is such a hassle to begin with. Some have waited hours before seeing their doctor at a given appointment. It often seems that unless it's an emergency, it's hard to get appointments at an hour that's not during the regularly scheduled workday... but I can go to a website any time of day or not, not wait in line, not read an outdated magazine, and with video conferencing actually see a doctor in real-time. Welcome to the potential of the 21^st century.

In this era, doctor's visits as we know it can completely change thanks to a monitor, a box, and a keyboard. More and more people are keeping records digitally so there's no need for the paper files which are confidential, now we have 128-bit encrypted data files that have security to the third generation in them. We have ways of doing everything via computer that we used to do by hand... that is everything except maneuver a scalpel, use a tongue compressor to look at your throat, check a woman's breast during a mammogram, and check a man's prostate during his annual physical. So we're back to my title question - could health websites eliminate the need for healthcare?

If you think about it, it might be part of the solution but it's not the answer for complete eradication. Yes, I believe we need new healthcare reform, but technology cannot replace everyone who has been trained and spent their lives doing this thing of saving people's lives through modern medicine, or holistic medicine if that's your path. You still have to account for the ways people are healed outside of modern medicine - acupuncture treatments, spiritual healings, a loving smile, therapeutic music. I definitely think health websites are a great tool in the assistance of providing great healthcare but I'm not yet a believer that it is the only thing needed for healthcare. If we disconnect the healthcare providers from those who need health, then soon no one will care... it'll all be up to machines to tell us what we need, where to go, and what we need. For some that is as scary as not having healthcare at all.