Brooklyn doc to treat patients over 'Net

Jay Parkinson is a 31-year-old general practitioner who, by his own admission, is a bit of a health care industry outsider. He's opening a solo practice today in which he plans to treat young, healthy, uninsured New Yorkers in person by house call and over e-mail, IM and video chat.

Here's an interview with Parkinson:

PARKINSON: There are a lot of things you don't need to see a physician for. For instance, acne or allergies or something like that. Things that aren't life threatening and might require some sort of drug that's a safe drug you don't have to worry about. You can also use it to give updates about how well they are doing if you saw them yesterday at their home. And you can also use it for giving results of labs and x-rays. You don't have to have patients come back to see you just to communicate.

wavLength: What kind of reaction have you gotten from the medical establishment?

PARKINSON: I've strictly gotten only positive responses from physicians who've emailed me. I just put up my site a few days ago and it's generated a huge amount of press already.

wavLength: Huh. I would think some people might be critical of this. But you haven't run into a conservative bent which says this is not the way to practice medicine?

PARKINSON: Not from a physicians. My site has been on some blogs that have been criticizing the sensitive nature of talking over instant messages.

wavLength: Seems like a fair point. How do you secure patients' private information?

PARKINSON: If people are willing to put their entire bank account online, shouldn't you not be worried about people accessing an instant message that's about somebody's acne?

wavLength: Of all the things you could have done coming out a medical school, why this?

PARKINSON: I strictly wanted to work for myself. I'm not your typical doctor. I didn't really get along with the traditional conservative doctor all the time. I just kind of wanted to do my own thing. It's very entrepreneurial and allows me the freedom to practice as I wish.