Ask Ed

Storm in a test tube about DrEd.com in Germany.

The head of the German Medical Association and a conservative politician are once again complaining about online doctors, in particular the London based DrEd.

They stress that their concerns are about treatment quality and potential dangers to patients when a physician does not have face to face contact with a patient. Their other area of concern is about the "traditional local pharmacy system".

We checked the DrEd site and found that they offer very limited and specific services, basically reproductive health (i.e. the pill for women and erectile dysfunction drugs for men), malaria prevention drugs and refills/follow-on prescriptions for some general long term conditions.

That's all.

The latest report in the media only mentions forms to fill out on the website and does not mention video conferences offered by DrEd.

And as far as the traditional pharmacy system goes, it not only looks hyper-quaint from an American point of view, it is also super expensive.

You cannot even get f**** aspirin or an anti-itch cream outside of a pharmacy.

Don't ask what they are selling in a German drugstore!

Sundries.

For now, the otherwise much scolded EU gets the credit they deserve: prescriptions from other EU states must be recognized in all member states.

Comments by German readers to one of the media reports sound so familiar to any American HMO patient that we laughed very hard.

"Try getting an appointment!"

"Doctors spend just a few minutes with each patient."

As they say, laughter is the best medicine -- but even the Germans have not tried to make that "by prescription only".

Maybe they are afraid of back alley laughter involving coat hangers.