Is technology changing the doctor/patient relationship?

RELATED VIDEO
House call 2000?
Windows Media	28K	80K

June 30, 1999
Web posted at: 11:05 a.m. EDT (1505 GMT)

(CNN) -- Technology has had a significant effect on health and medicine. From new testing techniques to surgical equipment, today's medicine is very different from that of even 10 years ago.

Now, technology may be changing the relationship between doctors and patients. As more and more people use the Internet to gather information, many are using technology to address their health needs and questions as well.

Numerous Web sites have health information, and some even provide online doctors who answer questions about medical conditions or problems. The answers are instantaneous, and the doctor is in 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Some consider the possibilities for this new doctor/patient relationship endless, but the American Medical Association is concerned that some patients may only visit Web sites and skip the office visit when they have heath problems.

Doctors at one Web site, AmericasDoctor.com, say they are actually against practicing medicine on the Internet. They say they see themselves more as traffic cops helping consumers navigate through the vast amount of medical information that is on the Web.

The site, which is affiliated with seven health-care organizations and hospitals, doesn't prescribe medication or keep medical records and gets about 400 million pages view a day.

Medical Correspondent Eileen O'Connor has more on this new kind of house call.