Journal of Visual Communication in Medicine

This journal has long been involved in the discussion which has followed the emergence and increased use and value of telemedicine, which has usually cited the link between a healthcare professional and another healthcare professional such as GP to hospital consultant- that is, until now. Recently televised in the UK was a spin-off show from a series entitled Embarrassing bodies a series which documents GP consultations for public viewing. This brand-new live series Embarrassing Bodies: Diagnosis Live from the Clinic promises to educate patients about their medical conditions from the comfort of their own home. It is direct patient-to-doctor ‘telly-medicine’ in its purest form, and is most definitely open to interpretation.

The UK-based newspaper The Guardian reviewed the show with the opening paragraph:

“If you are familiar with futuristic thriller Logan’s Run, there is something quite familiar about the set of Diagnosis Live from the Clinic. Or try Doctor Who (think Tom Baker not Matt Smith) or Barbarella. If this is “the future of healthcare” we should be worried.”¹

The review went on to discuss the psychological and ethical that issues such a public display of personal information cannot fail to raise and was also very critical of the technical issues experienced by the Skype-based live link which suffered the “usual skipping, muting, pixelated images and over-talk.”²

This journal often reports on clinical cases which can be used as an educational tool in the comfort of one's own home, but a patient's personal details always remain confidential. The symptoms are discussed in isolation from the individual who has experienced them and the details are contained within the pages (both in paper and online) of a reputable international peer-reviewed medical journal rather than in the popular mass-reaching media of television.

Embarrassing Bodies also has an extensive internet resource where an individual can research medical conditions using appealing and simple graphic illustrations of the human body³. The show, which was created in partnership with NHS Direct⁴, also claims to be saving the National Health Service in the UK thousands of pounds⁵.

Embarrassing Bodies is a Channel Four production, notably the same channel which supplied the viewer with other controversial programmes within the genre of ‘medical education’ such as Dr Gunther Von Hagen's Anatomy for Beginners and Autopsy: Life and Death.

Editor