The film “Up in the Air” is — ostensibly — all about George Clooney. Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) travels across the country 300+ days of the year and fires people for a living… Because bosses get scared and emotional ex-employees tend toward regrettable actions.

But “Natalie Keener” (Anna Kendrick) truly steals the show.

Natalie is the young hotshot character. She’s convinced Ryan’s boss to replace the guys’ jet-setting ways with New Technology: firing people over the computer screen. She’s going to make Ryan irrelevant, and the firees along with him.

Now replace “firing people” with “seeing patients”. Does the funny feeling grow?

This is the major reason “telemedicine” sets off alarm bells left and right.

We can accept pushing the “tele-” prefix onto other words. But not “medicine”. Medicine is sacred. Why? Because it should never be impersonal.

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