Louis Birdman is a busy guy, so when his seasonal allergies acted up recently, he didn't want to drag himself to his primary care doctor or wait for him to return a phone call. Instead, Birdman, 47, a father of two who works in real estate development in Hollywood, Fla., logged onto MDLiveCare. He says he "filled out a very short, easy-to-answer typical medical history information form," selected a pharmacy near his home and plugged in his credit card number to prepay the annual membership fee of $99.95, which included the $39.95 cost of his first visit. Birdman could have opted to communicate with an MDLiveCare physician via videoconferencing or secured messaging, but he was about to leave his office for the day. So he chatted with a doctor on his cellphone as he drove home from work. Although he might be a bit older than some, Louis Birdman epitomizes the type of patient new online and telephone health care companies, such as MDLiveCare, RingADoc and Zipnosis, target. "We have to go after a younger, healthier, tech-savvy audience, the low-hanging medical fruit with low medical risk," says Jon Pearce, co-founder and chief operating officer of Zipnosis, a Minneapolis-based company whose website reads, "Waiting room or living room? The choice is yours." Zipnosis, MDLiveCare and their competitors distance themselves from online pharmacies that offer free "consultations" with an anonymous doctor, few questions asked, to patients looking to buy Viagra and other "lifestyle" medications. Those Internet pharmacies spurred state regulators a decade ago to forbid doctors from prescribing medication to patients with whom they didn't have a relationship. That's usually been interpreted to mean they had to have seen the patient in person at least once. ONLINE DOCTORS: Are they the best medicine? BRITISH WEBSITES: Pushing boundaries of online medicine OPINION: Online doctor ratings aren't very helpful REVIEWS: Doctors seek gag orders to stop patients' online comments Kevin Palattao, vice president of patient care systems at HealthPartners, calls the notion that doctors can care for patients only if they've seen them in person "antiquated." Palattao notes that four out of five U.S. adults go online on any given day. "Relationships are being created and nurtured at substantially deep levels every day using modern communication techniques," says Palattao, whose Bloomington, Minn.-based company describes itself as the country's largest consumer-governed, non-profit health care organization. Last month, HealthPartners launched "virtuwell," offering 24/7 online access to care. MDLiveCare, Zipnosis, virtuwell and the like prescribe mainly antibiotics and antihistamines, not Viagra, and they say they can take as detailed a medical history online or over the phone as most doctors do at an office visit. With that information, company officials say, their doctors and nurse practitioners can decide whether to treat patients or refer them for a hands-on workup. Rob Webb, CEO of OptumHealth Care Solutions in Golden Valley, Minn., figures that online health care companies are following the same path to acceptance as nurse-staffed retail clinics such as MinuteClinics in CVS drugstores. "There was early trepidation about those services: How much can a nurse practitioner handle? And now it's mainstream," says Webb, whose company operates NowClinic, an online health care provider that serves residents of Minnesota and Texas. (Because of the latter state's rule that online doctors have an established relationship with patients, only Texans whose doctor is in the NowClinic network can use the service.) Soon, online health care providers will be able to take advantage of USB-based peripherals with which doctors could check blood pressure, heart rate or peer into a patient's ear, says Rey? Colon, chief marketing officer of Plano, Texas-based AmeriDoc, which has a network of nearly 300 doctors ready to diagnose and treat patients in every state. "We can certainly see that these emerging information technologies could enable better access to care," says pediatrician Dale Alverson, medical director of the Center for Telehealth and Cybermedicine Research at the University of New Mexico. The University of New Mexico uses telemedicine to extend health care services to rural communities. New technology enables eye specialists to diagnose sight-threatening problems remotely, says Alverson, a board member of the American Telemedicine Association. "You can do these retinal scans, get them read, but it has to be integrated into the health care system," he says. "What do you do with these patients once you've identified a problem?" Alverson asks, "Are we improving health care outcomes, or are we potentially endangering the public?" Only well-designed studies will be able to show whether these online companies provide care that is at least as effective and safe as that provided by a flesh-and-blood doctor or nurse, he says. Meanwhile, "let the buyer beware." Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. 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