Getting healthcare advice, or connecting with your healthcare team online, is an option that is increasingly available in today’s market. If you have health insurance, your policy may cover these types of services and their expense, or if you are employed, your employer sponsored coverage may cover this service. If you want to pay for the service yourself, the cost is usually around $40-$50 for a basic session of low complexity, although specialists or complex health issues may charge more.
It is helpful for the consumer to realize that a medical office is designed to help the provider examine a patient. This is why the lights are usually bright and the provider has all the equipment at hand if needed. When connecting at home, the patient won’t have the same lighting or set up as an office, so here are a few suggestions to help get the most out of an online visit.
Motion
Holding a mobile device in your hand while talking can get tiresome quickly. Plus, if you move to show something on your body it can be disorientating to the person you are talking to. It is usually easier to have the mobile device or camera propped up and to move yourself, rather than to move the mobile device. If you prop up the device or if you are using a laptop or desktop, it will also allow you to sit at a more comfortable distance from the camera so your features won’t be distorted and the lighting will be more even. It is much easier for everyone involved if the device with the camera is still, and the patient does the moving around.
Focus
The web cameras and cameras in mobile devices have gotten quite good, so sharing a picture of something on your skin can be done by holding the camera about a foot away. Apple devices can’t focus closer than about 7 inches anyway so being closer than that results in a blurry . Holding the camera farther back allows the provider to better see around the area of interest and get some anatomical context of what you are taking a picture of. Also, holding the camera back a bit lets a more even light to illuminate the area. With the resolution of most mobile devices on the market, the picture can usually be zoomed in if the provider wants a closer look.
Lighting
Speaking of lighting, that warm glow bedroom lamp that is almost a yellow orange looks great at night, but will really affect the colors of your web cam or mobile camera. In particular, the color red can get miss-represented and for skin issues, the color and tint of red is really important and needs to be as accurate as possible. If you are using a mobile phone camera, there is probably a flash or light that can be turned on to add some true white light, which will help, but those lights were intended for a subject that is about arm’s length away to maybe a few feet. Again, another good reason to hold your camera away to let the light even out a little.
Color
Except for the kitchen, homes don’t usually have lighting fixtures with true “white” light, as most bulbs are either “cool white” or “warm white”. Getting colors correct are why you’ll see film takes use a clapper board with known colors on it so that they can go back and correct any colors that the lighting may have changed. While you probably aren’t going to change the lights in your house just for an online call with your healthcare team, don’t be surprised if you are asking about a rash or something and the provider suggests that you go to a kitchen or a bathroom. These are two areas in a house where the lights have bulbs that have “true color” capability. Want a hint? If you put a “true color” or “sunlight” bulb (Kelvin temperature 5500) in your closet, those dark navy socks will finally look different than your black ones!
Equipment
If your personal provider or primary care physician supports online visits, you should ask them if there is any equipment that you can purchase that will enhance follow up conversation or ongoing management. If you have high blood pressure, then a blood pressure cuff would be an obvious item to have for a follow up visit. Simple things like thermometers and a weight scale can be helpful as well. There are a number of models on the market today that can automatically transmit the information of your temperature or weight through the internet … but is also just as easy to communicate the old-fashioned way too and just tell your provider what your temperature or weight is.
Should you have a condition that your provider needs some special equipment to monitor, such as a stethoscope, or if they need close-up pictures of something on your skin, they’ll probably have a preferred piece of equipment that they’ll want you to use. If they are monitoring an implanted device such as a pacemaker, those usually come with their own special equipment that is often .