Digital Diagnosis
The global COVID-19 pandemic has strongly influenced the shift in healthcare from mostly in-person to advanced predominant virtual care. Many healthcare providers have shifted the follow-up and chronic care to a virtual platform that fulfills the demand to free up hospital spaces for the consistently increasing COVID-19 patients.
This has resulted in controlling the spread of infection to a greater extent and the availability of consistent facilities for emergent patients. In addition to that, many specialist appointments are now being conducted virtually. As a result, telemedicine exploded in popularity as a response to maintain physical distancing.
Many healthcare providers have found an efficient tool with diverse advantages and strategies. Telemedicine was a growing trend, and it will continue to grow as the pandemic has forced it towards its forefront.
Telemedicine offers several advantages like:
Enabling Convenience for Healthcare Providers and Patients
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, it is becoming clear for both the patients and the healthcare providers that prescribing medicines, pharmaceutical consultancies, and chronic care appointments do not always require in-person visits.
Telemedicine allows convenience and reduced travel time, and most patients are willing to pay for these convenient services. These services allow the healthcare providers a smaller time commitment required from the patients.
The healthcare providers were constantly looking for ways that could enhance patients’ experience. Telemedicine comes in as an excellent solution to attract patients and use it regularly in the treatment where appropriate.
Telemedicine services fit well with demand-driven care. An online appointment is more convenient to schedule for appropriate situations. It is a proven, cost-effective solution for both patients and providers as it allows frequent and long-term check-ins with alternative options. As a result, it increases the patients’ trust in healthcare providers.
Enhancing Capabilities
Technology is still advancing, and the possibilities for the future of telemedicine are interminable. The constant advances in technology are influencing the revolution of the healthcare system. In diverse cases, telemedicine and its virtual care are efficient tools for healthcare providers.
As healthcare providers are experiencing an increase in convenience and cost-efficiency, healthcare providers are working with tech-oriented companies to enhance their services.
On the other hand, healthcare companies are expanding their solutions by utilizing services from well-established communication tools like video and audio calls to transformative technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Telemedicine tools are becoming more accepted and feasible for everyday use as they are incorporating features to obtain providers’ feedback and using it to adjust and improvements to improve providers’ experience and satisfaction.
Re-defining the Regulations
When COVID-19 arose, many of the policies governing and concerning telemedicine have been slackened and continuously updated to accommodate the state of emergency.
These substantial changes brought an unexpected outcome of establishing the benefits of telemedicine by helping patients to continue their treatments with their doctors remotely without getting any of the risk factors involved in the process. As a result, many patients received top-notch medical services in the comfort of their homes.
As telemedicine is rapidly advancing, the regulations and policies are being constantly updated and are also being expanded to include innovative technologies. These factors are enabling new enhancements in the telemedicine platforms.
Healthcare at our Fingertips
It is still a matter of concern that many rural parts of the world do not have easy access to healthcare services. Patients have to travel for hours at times to receive adequate care as per their needs. Also, older people with chronic conditions are not able to visit their doctors more often because of the long-distance travel.
Telemedicine continues to significantly impact the frequency of providing quality healthcare services to patients living in rural areas. Additionally, these patients can connect with their specialist doctors and get their medical advice without any location constraints.
In any diagnosis, a patients’ medical history plays a crucial role in gathering information needed to rectify the problems and guide a precise treatment. Telemedicine allows the collection of this data remotely enabling convenience, as a patient is more relaxed and honest in a home setting.
As the technology is evolving, data collection from consumer technology like wearables is providing vital information about the living conditions by observing patients in their environment.
Telemedicine: Future of Healthcare?
Telemedicine is enabling convenience in the healthcare industry but, there are diversified treatments that require an in-person diagnosis.
However, now that the medical practices are experiencing the strengths of telemedicine, and as the healthcare industry evolves alongside technological developments, telemedicine is eventually becoming a significant part of the healthcare industry.
New healthcare providers in this niche are implementing telemedicine to stay ahead in the industry because telemedicine is here to stay.
