Web Site Aims To Help Diagnose Patients With Flu Symptoms
The American Medical Association has launched a new interactive Web site aimed at helping patients get answers about possible flu symptoms.
AMAfluhelp.org was designed in cooperation with Microsoft and health record provider Healthy Circles to be a forum for people to get answers about if and when they should seek medical attention for their symptoms.
The site is interactive in its approach by allowing patients to speak directly with medical professionals.
Eventually, the site will allow doctors to prescribe medications online, Reuters reported on Thursday.
Currently, the Web site will operate as a way to reduce the amount of patients seeking medical attention when it is not warranted.
This will cut down on the number of patients in waiting rooms across the nation, said Dr. Mary Anne McCaffree, member of the AMA board.
"If you had 25 or so phone calls a day to your office and now you’re having 1,000 calls, it is very hard to find the needle in the haystack to see who is the very sickest," McCaffree told Reuters.
Information on the Web site is based on the CDC’s flu guidelines.
What’s more, by allowing patients to stay at home, the Web site will keep healthy people from being sickened in germ-infested waiting rooms.
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