A product that integrates videoconferencing and asynchronous or the so-called “store-and-forward” technology is working to reduce or eliminate travel while increasing access to medical care especially in places where specialty care is hard to come by and where demand is high. A case in point: seven ophthalmologists responsible for 3 million people in South Central LA. Quick dispatch of medical care can be impossible with the sheer disparity in number.
The store-and-forward technology makes it possible for the doctors to see more patients by not actually seeing them. This would mean replacing clinic visits by images taken by technicians which are then delivered to the doctors’ e-mail in-boxes. Employers and employees seem to find the workplace services acceptable since patients are served a lot faster without the need to leave the workplace.