Therapy Over IP Draws the Young, Isolated

Lucas123 writes "Psychiatrists say VoIP technology is more popular with patients than even in-person therapy when it comes to counseling — especially for their younger patients who are less intimidated by it. Along with many patients who like the convenience, telepsychiatry is a necessity for others who live in rural areas or are in, prisons, nursing homes or hospital ICUs. 'We've had just over 60,000 patient encounters. To my knowledge, only six have refused to be seen via teleconferencing,' said Dr. Avrim Fishkind, an emergency psychiatrist. 'We're tailor made for telemedicine because we don't check people's livers. We just talk.'" I wonder whether Eliza can be sued for practicing medicine without a license.

Re:VOIP != video teleconferencing

[timeOday]

Wow, you are making me feel old for remembering when long-distance calling was cost-prohibitive. In 1984 a long-distance domestic call was about 25 cents per minute, which would be 50 cents per minute or $30/hour now. Now I use an ooma device and, after the initial investment, haven't paid a phone bill at all in about 3 years.

By the way, while checking my facts I found this humorous article [jstor.org] from the Brookings Institute in 1987 slamming government regulatory action in breaking up AT&T claiming it was causing telephone rates to rise. Ha ha.

Re:Privacy Implications are Horrible

[mitashki]

No patient would ever notice if his psychiatrist is recording the live session in their room. The privacy ethic is totally in the hands of the psychiatrist. So now after addressing your paranoia and O/C disorders how about having a beer in a nice relaxing environment and screw the therapy? ;-)