Legal Commentary

Had a fascinating visit today with a specialist in retinas. At first, I was pretty frustrated because you have to wait a lonnnnnng time to see the doctor, but once you're in the exam room, Dr. Kenneth Wald is the model of efficiency. (A good sign: his support staff are awesome, and his patients looooove him -- in fact, when I was getting antsy, two of them told me to chill out, that he's worth the wait.)

And he's the first specialist I have ever been to who literally dictates his medical report AS he examines you. Wald uses a Bluetooth microphone (just like a cell phone mic) that feeds to his BlackBerry. Of course I had to ask how it worked.

The audio file is shipped immediately to India, he explained. By the time Wald has walked his dog at about 5:30 a.m.tomorrow, he'll have all of today's letters to review as he drinks his morning coffee. He makes any changes he wants, prints and signs the letters, and then his staff puts them in envelopes, and mails them to the referring doctors.

Sometimes, Wald says, if a case is particularly interesting or challenging, he will do some medical research and add more info to the letter before it goes out.  Fortunately for me, my eyes were neither interesting nor challenging, so the letter to my opthamologist Dr. Julia Katz should be in the mail tomorrow morning.

Amazing -- as is the cost: $2/letter.