Dr. Jay Parkinson has an innovative take on old-fashioned medicine: Do it online.

The Brooklyn-based doctor became something of a media darling last year when he began a virtual practice out of his Brooklyn apartment. After one initial consultation, Dr. Parkinson uses just a Macintosh with Web 2.0 as his primary tool. Through instant messaging, video chat, and other remote applications, he is able to work with his patients in what he believes to be a more efficient manner than making them schedule appointments and spend hours in a waiting room just for simple follow-up sessions.

"I Am A New Kind of Physician" Parkinson boasts on his Website's homepage, making a bold -- if immodest -- self-endorsement. And instead of viewing this as an inhuman way of treating his patients, Dr. Parkinson considers it almost a throw-back to the good ol' days, when your neighborhood doctor was someone you could call on anytime -- little black medicine bag in tow.

Gawker.com calls Parkinson a "hipster doctor", and maybe he is. After all, he's young, good-looking, and he lives in Williamsburg. But judging from his Website, he seems to take his work seriously. And since a large portion of his practice is devoted to young, uninsured freelance types (of which there are many thousands in New York alone), is this really such a bad thing? At least he's someone they can relate to.