For people who say Telemedicine will fail!

Telemedicine or connected care is where medical information is electronically exchanged from one site to another with the aim to improve a patient’s health. It can be done via video conferencing, e-mail, phone apps etc.

 Telemedicine, E-Health,Cyber Physician are buzz words today but you will be surprised that it has been in use since 18th century when the first electric telegraph was invented by Morse. Since, then physicians have been able to provide medical advice to patients over radio, TV, phone, and now emails.

Telemedicine is an inter-disciplinary area comprising of medical, biomedical, communication and information technology.


The words “Telemedicine” and “Telehealth” often used interchangeably. However, telemedicine refers to a more traditional clinical diagnosis and monitoring while telehealth is for wide range of diagnosis and management, education, and other related fields of health care. An example of Telehealth includes a patient’s blood glucose monitor or heart rate monitor being connected to the Internet to stream data to the physician. So, now you can no longer lie to your doctor about not exercising every day.

Benefits of Telemedicine

Telemedicine is here to stay and the main reason is our changing lifestyle. As our lives gets busier than ever and the waiting room visits gets longer, this new method of healthcare is becoming quite popular. Here are the three biggest benefits as per the experts-

1.      Convenience- One of the major benefits of Telemedicine comes in underserved or remote areas where the nearest place is miles away. It also comes in handy when you need help in the middle of night and the only option is to drive to a 24 hr. urgent care facility.

One of the areas where Telemedicine has been very successful is skin related problems where you need a quick diagnosis. You can reach out to the doctor via a video call and after examination the Doctor can prescribe you a medicine over the call. How neat is that!

  

2.      Bye-Bye waiting rooms- Another example is taking time out from your crazy meeting schedule to visit a doctor. Seems almost quite impossible unless there is an emergency of course. Under these scenarios, it is quite easy to connect with the physicians’ offices.  No need to arrive early for a check-in, fill paper work, and wait. All you need is access to internet at the time of appointment.

3.      Economical- Many physicians charge less for a telemedicine consultation than they would for an in-person. Besides this it provides 24-hour access to a health care provider from any legally permitted location and visits typically cost a flat low rate. Companies like Teladoc, Doctor on Demand have brought down the cost because patients have been able to avoid redundant tests.

Challenges with Telemedicine

Physician resistance is one of the biggest issue that surfaces when it comes to Telemedicine. But it offers physicians the opportunity to reach people that otherwise wouldn’t have and is one of the easiest ways to increase patient volumes = revenue. Additionally, the convenience Telemedicine offers to the patients, it leads to low cancellations and no-shows for physicians.

Another argument against is the accuracy of diagnosis. Lack of face-to-face interaction with the patient raises concerns about the credibility of the diagnosis. There’s no denying that telemedicine is in its infancy but it is definitely growing in the right directions.

Bottom line

Telemedicine or E-Health is fast changing the landscape of health care practice with the rapid development of mobile apps, wearables, patient monitoring cameras. It won’t be an understatement to say that Telemedicine will be