Part 4. Doctors on the Internet.

Keywords. practice medicine, diagnose, prescribe, advise, patient-physician relationship.

Vocabulary. dietician, clearing house, board-certified, credentials, anecdotal, cautionary.

Owings Mills, America's Doctor Online, Amdoc Number 3, American Medical Association.

A. You're going to hear a news report on the responsibilities for internet doctors.

Listen carefully and complete the following chart.

Is there a doctor in the house? The answer is always yes, if you have a computer and a modem at home.

Did you forget to ask your doctor an important question on your last visit? Has another issue come up?

No problem. You can get in touch with the a doctor via the Internet at any hour of the day or night.

In just the past few months, hundreds of doctors have gone on line 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Owings Mills, Maryland in the Washington DC suburbs is the headquarters of "America's Doctor Online".

42 primary care doctors, as well as dieticians and pharmacists provide free information to callers with health questions.

The firm's founder is Dr Scott Rifkin.

"We are not trying to practice medicine. We're trying to give consumers good information on their various healthcare issues.

We are not going to diagnose. We are not going to prescribe.

We are going to listen to the consumer, and have them ask us questions and then give them information that they most need.

The idea is to give them directed information that's usable to the consumer."

Dr Rifkin told ABC News that America's Doctor Online acts as a clearing houses for the hundreds of thousands of responses a web browser might turn up in answer to a question.

The Online health professionals don't diagnose or treat medical conditions.

And they don't charge for their services.

They are not known by their names, but by Amdoc Number 3 or 4 or whatever.

"Our physicians are very carefully trained to not practice medicine and to always refer their consumer back to their own physician or to their local resources, their local hospitals."

Unlike Dr Rifkin, Florida emergency care physician, Dr Tom Caffery, has founded a website of board-certified doctors who do practice medicine.

They make virtual house calls at about 50 dollars a visit and diagnose, advise and prescribe medicine to hundreds of patients daily.

"We are the only site on the Internet where you can pick a doctor who is board-certified, see his credentials, know who you are speaking with.

And we're there 24 hours, 7 days a week. It's the return of a house call. This time it's electronic."

Dr Caffrey believes that the Internet medicine is inevitable and provides a useful service.

"I am very comfortable with what we are doing.

We want to help set the standard for this because it is coming.

You can't stop this. It is going to happen."

There is anecdotal information about other online doctors prescribing harmful drugs and giving bad advice.

And the president of the American Medical Association, Dr Thomas Reardon, believes that doctors simply should not practice medicine over the Internet.

"I don't think it's ethical.

I think it's unethical to diagnose and prescribe over the Internet without having a patient-physician relationship."

Drugs carry cautionary labels. Perhaps these websites should carry warning labels, also, such as "Check out the doctors' credentials",

"Protect your privacy with secure sites", "Sharing what you learn with your own doctor", "Never go on line in a medical emergency".

And the big question remains unanswered, whether Internet doctors should practice medicine or only advise.

B. Listen again. Match column A with column B.