I noticed an announcement last week saying that Skype was releasing a new beta version of its software for Windows which allows up to five people to participate in a video call simultaneously. Alas, it isn’t clear when they’ll have something for Linux and Mac users, but this will certainly be a feature that I’ll be using. (Probably after the beta has had the first round of bug fixes.)
I don’t do any group therapy anyway, so the title to this post is only a teaser, but I can really think of some great uses for this technology. I’m pretty open to conference calls with family members while I’m face to face with my patient, so I can see this going better if I can see them as well as talk to them. Also, I’m thinking that video Skype would be a good way to handle some interactions with my professional peers and my patients. For example, sometimes I’m talking with a patient and on the phone to his or her internist at the same time. Wouldn’t a three way video conference be a lot better for everyone?
If I start to do this though, I have to figure out how to manage things with my patient. Right now, the video camera is on my computer facing out at me when I’m behind my desk and (intentionally, right now) doesn’t show anybody or anything in my consulting room, just a wall behind me.
I’ll have to think this out. I’m not crazy about having a camera in the area where I’m seeing patients right now. I’ll have to think about how I need to reconfigure the seating for me and my patient if we want to get on a Skype call together. I’ve tried this once, and it was a little awkward to have the patient standing over my shoulder while we were talking to someone.
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