Dr. Jay Parkinson: Web 2.0 MD

The internet has changed the way people interact in this world. It's bridged the gap between continents, it's brought old friends back together, and now, it brings your doctor to you.

The Freelancer's Doctor

Meet Dr. Jay Parkinson, Web 2.0 MD. Dr. Parkinson's practice is online. He makes an initial house(office)-call, and then follows up via email or IM, which is exactly the way I deal with clients as a freelance web developer. When I became a freelancer, one of the major issues was losing medical benefits package. This is where Dr. Parkinson comes in. He provides low cost, accessible, unobtrusive medical assistance, and if there is a need for more hands-on medical assistance, he has a painstakingly selected network of affordable clinics to refer his online patients to. In his own words, he "mixes the services of an old-time, small town doctor with the latest technology to keep you and your bank account healthy."

How does he do it?

All this is done in true web 2.0 style.

1. Sign up form using FormSpring
2. Real-time notification of applications via the iPhone.
3. Payment using Paypal
4. Appointment Calendar using Google Calendar
5. Blog using Wordpress

Accessibility

The doctor's site does however, suffer with some serious accessibility related diseases. The majority of the site is made up of images. The only accessible content I noticed were the blog and the FAQ pages. There's currently a lawsuit against Target.com for "discriminating against blind users". If an online store gets this kind of lawsuit. If an online store can be the target of such lawsuits, it would only seem logical that an online medical service would be next.

Kudos

I want to close this post by giving kudos to the good doctor for having this great idea and for pushing the envelope a little further.