Medicine by proxy or "Do you really want to know who's reading your EKG?

In this month's NEJM (New England Journal of Medicine) there is a very interesting article about teleradiology - the first wave of medical "outsourcing". Here's how it works:

Jane smith is having strange chest pains and shortness of breath and goes to see her primary care doc who refers her to a cardiologist. But, before she can fulfill her appointment with the cardiologist, she experiences a dramatic incident and her husband rushes her to the emergency room. She describes her condition and she is whisked into a room, poked, prodded and electrodes are connected to her chest.

Some time later, a doctor walks into her room and tells her that she has had an abnormal EKG and may need surgery to repair a problem.

"That's funny", Jane says to her husband, "I dont remember a doctor visiting me about my heart condition, how could they know I need surgery"?

What Jane didn't know is that the electrodes connected to her chest, transmitted the electrical impulses of her heart to a computer screen - in INDIA. There, an Indian cardiologist read her chart and made the diagnosis.

Why in the name of Spongebob would someone want to do this? As Mr. Krabbs would say, "Me Money!"

Huge health delivery companies have realized, as have huge computer companies and huge telephone companies that people in India are happy making 10% of what an American earns. This is true for doctors as well as computer programmers. So, the "Humungo medical insurance company" has figured out that if they can pay an Indian cardiologist $20.00 to read your chart instead of an American doctor $125.00", - multiplied by numerous thousands of patients, they can afford that stainless-steel office furniture after all.

What say ye? Are you willing to trust your medical diagnosis to someone who lives in a country where drunken elephants kill dozens of villagers each year? (In fairness, I would take the drunken elephants over gang-shootings any day).

I say, its time for Americans to take control of their health and to stop believing that capitalism equates to success and that cost is the deciding factor in the quality of human life.

Peanuts, anyone?