Consultatio epistulae--the way forward?

longer appear. A little packet fell into the box below the screen, together with a card inviting him to go to the optician's counter to have a more detailed visual check and to select a pair of spectacle frames. He felt ill, however, and went home to bed. Three days later, back at home in north Yorkshire, the telephone rang in the evening. "You haven't been back to a Mediphone booth," said the voice from Devon. "Are you feeling better?" David felt guilty. "Much better," he said. "I haven't finished the course of tablets yet, and thought I would leave it until I had since they are obviously working." "OK," said the voice at the end of the line. It knew from his family history and from his exam results both in school and university (as recorded by the Central Educational Bureau) that he was intelligent. However, from previous responses to requests to attend the Mediphone booth it knew that he was rather unreliable in this respect. "Do go back though," it said. "The pills you are on now are only antibiotics designed to get rid of the infection. Once that is dealt with you will need some others to dissolve the gall stones. You could also do with losing some weight." It did not mention that the electrocardiogram showed very early signs of ischaemic damage to the heart which would be worth following up, particularly in view of a strong family history of coronary artery disease evident from the genetic record. Luckily there had been no traces of nicotine on David's breath. The computer updated the neural network in the National Databank to pass on all the knowlege it had about David and what treatment it had recommended for him, together with the fact that the abdominal pain had resolved within three days. Further follow up details could be sent in when David next came to the Mediphone. Keeping the central network up to date was important in order to determine which forms of treatment worked best for particular groups of patients. "OK," said David, knowing that he might decide not to go back, but also that he would have to tell the Mediphone of his decision if he did not want to be pestered by one phone call after another. He also knew that his employer might ask him to produce a clean Mediphone "bill of health" if …