Hello Pcventures,
You’ll be glad to know that there are legitimate, licensed doctors
online who do offer both real-time consultations as well as email
advice, and no, they’re not all there just to enable the online
pharmacies to sell Viagra! The type of service you’re looking for has
been increasingly in demand, and more and more doctors are seeing the
need and trying to fill it. Do keep in mind, however, that due to
liability concerns, most of them have disclaimers saying they won’t
provide diagnoses nor prescriptions, but they do offer answers to
medical questions, and advice and information that will enable you to
make an informed decision as to whether or not to seek in-person
medical care.
First of all, I’d like to point you to a question answered last
November by my esteemed colleague, Tehuti-ga. This answer provided
some very good links to online medical services that I’m sure you
would like to check it out, here:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=114989
However, there are some additional sites I’d like to call to your
attention, so that you might have a good variety from which to make a
selection based on your individual needs and preference. Please see
the disclaimer below and understand that I am not a medical
professional, and I am not offering professional advice of any kind,
nor endorsing or recommending any particular person, site, or service,
but only providing general information. It would also be a good idea
to bear in mind that real time consultation with a medical doctor is a
fee-based service. Some sites charge for each contact, some by
subscription, some offer both, but you are not likely to find a doctor
who will consult with you for free. Also, you didn’t specify a
location, so I have included services from both the U.S. and other
countries. I’ve done my best to screen out those that are obviously
connected to online pharmacies.
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“Surgery Concerns” offers consultation with doctors in a variety of
formats, including a one-on-one private telephone consultation for up
to 30 minutes for USD$149.95. In addition, they offer personalized
email responses for $49.95 and a database of medical information.
Find them here: http://www.surgeryconcerns.com/ Click on the link
under the founder’s name and you will find he is a legitimate U.S.
licensed M.D. with impeccable credentials.
“My Physicians” is another site that has recently added telephone
consultation to its email services. It charges USD$65 for a 30-minute
consultation. Here is the information page for phone consultations”:
https://myphysicians.com/talktothedoctor.html . Just erase the
“talktothedoctor.html” section from the url and hit “enter” to see the
main site. An express email response (within 24 hours) costs $30.
This service is limited to residents of the U.S. and Canada only.
“E Cure Me” is a membership-based U.S. site that offers live private
video chat consultation with a U.S. licensed physician at USD$4.99 per
minute, (you can download the CU-SeeMe chat software from their site),
as well as email answers and an extensive online database of medical
information. You must also register at the site, but signing up is
free and provides “full access to our products and services -- make a
self-diagnosis, create your own health chart, request fee-based
healthcare consultations, get discounts on medical supplies and
equipment. And, be kept up-to-date on all our latest promotions and
on-live events.” http://www.ecureme.com/index.asp
Here is another site, called “Ask the Dr.” This site offers real time
medical consultation via online chat or telephone, and also answers
questions sent by email. The cost is USD$18.95 for email, $24.00 for
chat or telephone, or $49.00 for three months unlimited use. You can
find them here: http://216.218.196.146/askthedr/index.htm The doctor
who runs this site is licensed in South Africa, and offers his
credentials for your inspection.
“Your Family Doctor” is a service that offers relatively inexpensive
(USD$11.95 or $19.95) live online consultations with a doctor via MSN
Messenger and/or ICQ. Although they do appear to be legitimate, I
wasn’t able to find any mention of specific credentials. And though
they have a link to an independent review of their services, at the
time I tried to use it the link wasn’t working. They don’t say
specifically, but from some of the word usage and spelling used in the
site, I suspect they are based in either U.K. or Australia. Should
you like the site and want to try their services, I’d suggest emailing
first to see whether you might find out a little more about
credentials if you want to be assured of legitimacy.
http://www.online-ambulance.com/
And then there is “Doc by Web,” an Ohio-based medical advice and
information site that offers “virtual house calls,” where you can chat
online in real time 24/7 with either Board-Certified or Board eligible
doctors and/or licensed RNs. However, they say their service is
currently available only by group contract, so this may not be for
you. They do give an email address to inquire further, and they do
offer other services such as online forums and a research library.
Worth at least taking a look at:
http://www.docbyweb.com/index.asp?func=about&SessionID=
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Although you specified real time, I’ll also give you links to a couple
of sites that will provide answers to your medical questions by
doctors via email, within a fairly short turnaround time, just in case
you might like to check them out as well. Sometimes the fees are a
little lower for this service, and accessibility issues are not as
much a problem.
“Ask Your Family Doc” offers email answers to medical questions by a
licensed U.S. family physician currently based in New Hampshire:
http://www.askyourfamilydoc.com/askdoc.htm
Dr. Ashley Minas, “Your Online Family Physician,” is an
Indian-educated, Armenian-based physician who offers a 48-hour reply
to urgent questions, 72-hours for regular in either English or
Russian. http://www.consultdrminas.com/eng/03_1_consult.php
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Depending on what you mean by “legitimate,” you might want to take a
look at sites offered by other than allopathic (M.D.) physicians, such
as Chinese medicine practitioners or homeopathic doctors. Here are a
few that look interesting:
This site asks you to download a software program that will enable you
to chat in real time with Chinese medicine practitioners. However,
the download is free, or at least offers a 30-day free trial. Despite
the caution I gave above, this site says that its service is free,
unless of course you decide to buy the software. Check it out here:
http://www.healthphone.com/consump_english/index_consu_eng.htm
U.K. based homeopathic consulting via online chat:
http://www.homeupath.com/
Homeopathic email consultation:
http://www.classicalhomoeopathy.com/hicell.htm
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I hope these will give you some choices for finding a legitimate
health professional with whom to discuss your questions and concerns.
If you have any questions, please use the “Request Clarification”
feature to ask before rating and closing the question so I can be sure
you’re satisfied with the information provided.
Best wishes,
Byrd
Search terms used:
"real time" medical consultation online OR telephone –pharmacy
The above returned the most useful results. However, I did then have
to sift through the returns, as well as several subsidiary listings to
find sites that met the stated criteria, which I then further screened
for legitimacy and appropriateness. |
