Second opinions online - Physician-patient Relations - Massachusetts General Hospital, the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women's Hospital - Brief Article

Health Management Technology, Nov, 2001

Three high profile Boston hospitals--Massachusetts General Hospital, the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women's Hospital--have launched a Web-based second opinion service aimed at improving access to specialty physicians for rural patients and reducing the long waits other patients endure in getting appointments.

To use Partners Online Specialty Consultation, patients ask their primary care physicians to initiate the service, and then submit detailed health information to the new website through a Web browser with 128-bit encryption. Their data is forwarded to one of 4,000 specialists available through the service, who returns a second opinion to the PCP. Fee for the service is $600, which is not typically covered by insurers.