27 Year-old woman died one day after cancer diagnosis, symptoms dismissed as 'hormonal'

[3catwoman3]

24. This sad case also points out the inherent weakness in telemedicine.

I retired from 45 years as a peds nurse practitioner not quite a year ago. Telemedicine was a big reason. You CANNOT accurately diagnose something by phone or computer screen. My outlook was, If I can't see it, auscultate it (listen to it), or palpate it (touch it or feel it), I don't want to diagnose it."

Before telemedicine became so popular, people still wanted treatment without being examined. Not unusual on call for a parent to want an antibiotic called in for assorted reasons. My usual reply to such requests was, "I could do that, but I need you to understand that the very best I can do over the phone is to guess what might be going on with your child, and I would hate to guess wrong."

That usually put an end to the request.