[xb95]

This would help with the times I've just wanted to ask someone "so, does this shirt actually go with these pants, or am I totally crazy?"

All joking aside, this could be interesting. It makes me think of that service that existed for a while where you could ask a question of a topic area, and it would send an IM to people and ask them to answer it. I forget what it was called, but I used it for a little while.

The payment/HIPAA compliance aspect are pretty interesting, too. I would easily throw $50 at a 10 minute consult with a doctor instead of having to make an appointment and haul myself in to the local clinic. Particularly if said doctor could then fax a prescription for something completely boring but still not OTC to my local pharmacy.

[BrandonY]

Are you thinking of Aardvark? I think Google bought that a while back and then discontinued it.

[ekianjo]

Aardvark was great at the time. I especially loved the integration with gmail, it made it very seamless to think about something and just drop a question in a couple of seconds. It's a shame they stopped it.

[xb95]

Yes, thank you! That's exactly it.

[car]

Said doctor should come to you, as is customary in many countries. Instead, in the US you have to drag your sick self in to see a physician. And pay a boatload for a 5 minute consult; ridiculous.

[enko]

While I'm by no means a fan of the US health care system, it seems pretty wasteful for high-value doctors to be wasting their precious time travelling to see patients.

Perhaps videoconferencing could be a good option for simple cases (viagra, sleeping pills) while a medical pick-up system could be instituted for patients requiring in-person consultations, but lacking mobility or the urgency required for an ambulance.

[commandar]

>I would easily throw $50 at a 10 minute consult with a doctor instead of having to make an appointment and haul myself in to the local clinic.

I remember hearing an NPR report recently about some doctors running their private practice similar to that. They were basically operating on a subscription model - they would come see you if needed, but for quick consults and the like, they'd do things like Skype calls to talk with their patients. Struck me as a very interesting idea.

EDIT:

This isn't the report I'm thinking of, but it's very similar:

http://www.opb.org/news/article/npr-virtual-urgent-care-the-...

This is for urgent care, but as I said above, I've heard similar reports about private practices working this way.

[brokenmusic]

You should consider http://coinmd.org then. They're cheaper and seem to give really good advice so far. It's anonymous for doctors though, so of course, there's a risk in that. However, I read through their faq and find their policy of selecting and working with doctors quite convincing.

[ilaksh]

There are other services like that. I think JustAnswer is one of them.

[tayk]

Wizpert (http://wizpert.com) is one as well.