The Internet will increasingly change patients' expectations of clinicians, so that physicians will routinely need to offer services like e-messaging, instant messaging, video conferencing and other online services. —Pew Internet & American Life Project1
Physicians have become accustomed to the curiosity and dependency of patients in the practice of medicine. Yet they need autonomy and privacy to move freely in their personal lives. They wince under the glare of publicity and often feel grateful to medical dramas on television and in film for helping to slake that curiosity.