Online doctor is a term that emerged during the 2000s, used by both the media[1] and academics, to describe a generation of physicians and health practitioners who deliver healthcare, including drug prescription, over the internet.
[3] A 2009 survey conducted by Geneva-based Health On the Net Foundation found one-in-ten Europeans buys medicines from websites and one-third claim to use online consultation.
[15] Laurence Buckman, chairman of the British Medical Association’s GPs’ committee, says that online consultations make life easier for doctors and patients when used properly.
As of February 2011, WebMD's network of sites reaches an average of 86.4 million visitors per month[18] and is the leading health portal in the United States.
Prominent San Francisco-based venture capital firm Founders Fund called such services "extraordinarily fast" and predicted that they will "bring relief to thousands of people with immediate medical needs".
This mobile technology allows a patient to connect with the doctor online through a video call, live message chat or schedule an appointment and can get instant medication info.
The Nuffield Council on Bioethics identifies such services as direct-to-consumer body imaging (such as CT and MRI scans) and personal genetic profiling for individual susceptibility to disease.
[25] Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, the medical director of the UK NHS, is drawing up plans to introduce electronic consultation via Skype and has said IT will "completely change the way [doctors] deliver medicine".