Medicine and healthcare has developed greatly in the recent times. It has become inseperable aspect of our lives. In current times it is so advanced that it prolongs lives on earth and enables reaching an average of 72 years of life expectancy. With technology advancement medicine is constantly perfected. Today healthcare can be provided remotly which was called telehealth service.
Using digital information and communication technology devices, we are able to supervise one’s state of health without having to meet in person. The main goals of telehealth are enabling access to healthcare to people in isolated communities, making service more dynamic and time saving, improve coordination between patient and specialists. Many clinics provide service of telecare by managing a patient portal. Thanks to it, you can communicate easily with your doctor or nurse. You can also schedule appointments, show your previous visits results, or even request prescription refills.
Virtual appointments are one of the reasons telehealth exists. It allows a person to attend an appointment with doctor through videoconference. Thanks to that, people may recieve care when regular appointment isn’t required or possible. For example treating a minor illness doesn’t require you to leave your aparment, merely describing your state through a device to a doctor. Moreover your doctor is able to conduct a consultation with a specialist instantly if needed. After loging in to a web-service, you are being asked a series of questions based on which a nurse determines what kind of care should you recieve and if it can be managed virtually or if your state should be furtherly inspected. Despite the fact that the service is convinient it has some disadvantages including not being able of being treated by your doctor, lack of in-person evaluation or the computer driven decision making model may not preprocess correctly your medical history in case it is complex.
In the times of global pandemic telehealth service takes an important part in healthcare. As previously it served only as a way of convenience for patients, now it is crucial and is developed dynamicly. Thanks to remote diagnosis, patients do not risk being infected with SARS-CoV, as they do not leave their house or make any direct contact.
In my opinion telehealth service is not developed enough to replace a regular appointment. However in times of COVID-19, when aspect of remoteness is heavily prioritized in many services, it may come to that telehealth will be sufficient way of healthcare.
Sources:
https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/consumer-health/in-depth/telehealth/art-20044878
I agree with your last statement that telehealth isn’t developed much. When the quarantine started I had an only option to call a doctor. It was very difficult to get a reasonable point from the call, and because of that I had even more problems. In my opinion it is a good option with “light” problems, but when it comes to bigger ones, it’s still very difficult. I think with some time it will get much better.
Telehealth allows doctors to see more patients much faster and instead of wasting time traveling to a clinic, a patients can just connect to their doctor via a video. But still, this solution will never completely substitute in-person checkups.
I think that Telehealth is great but only for the doctor to prescribe your usual medication or for a quick check, but in other cases this is not a good option.
Great article!