What on-screen doctors will always miss

WHEN was the last time you saw a doctor, face-toface? One of the most dramatic changes in the NHS since the onset of Covid has been an increasing reliance on the use of telemedicine.

A report last year found that in many parts of England fewer than half of patients now get face-to-face appointments, with the rest having to speak to their GPs via telephone or video calls.

Like it or loathe it, we are going to be seeing even more of telemedicine, not least because it means doctors can see more patients in less time. But how accurate is it?

In a recent study, researchers at the Mayo Clinic in the U.S. analysed the results of more than 97,000 telemedicine appointments, comparing the accuracy of these diagnoses with a follow-up inperson appointment. Though the overall accuracy of the telemedicine diagnosis was 87 per cent, it very much depended on what the problem was.

When it was an ear, nose or throat problem, the doctors working remotely got it right only 65 per cent of the time. With cancer or mental illness, however, they were right 97 per cent of the time. Specialists were also more likely to reach a correct diagnosis remotely than GPs.

Apart from this disparity in diagnosis, I fear an over-reliance on telemedicine will weaken doctor-patient relationships, which play a big part in the successful outcome of any consultation.