Joseph Scherger, a family physician in California, was at Chicago's O'Hare Airport last week when he fired up his portable computer, checked his e-mail and found an urgent message from a patient, Beth.

Eight months pregnant, Beth was itchy and miserable. She had broken out in a skin rash. She wanted quick relief. Beth attached a picture of her orange-blotched skin. There in the passenger terminal, Scherger sent a message to Beth in Orange County. He prescribed medication and recommended she take a special bath. Checking his e-mail the next day from Washington, Scherger learned that Beth was feeling much better. The rash was gone. When Scherger gets back to his Irvine office in a few days, he said he plans to check up on Beth. A passionate advocate of using information technology to deliver medical care, Scherger said that e-medicine can save patients' lives, bring down costs and make high-quality care available to more people. Computers can catch dangerous drug interactions and reduce the risk of medical errors, which, he noted, "kill more people than AIDS and breast cancer each year." Scherger said e-medicine spares patients unnecessary trips to his office, allows him and patients to "avoid telephone tag" and expands the availability of medical information to physicians and patients.