A tool that makes healthcare more accessible, cost-effective, and that increases patient engagement – is telemedicine. Since making its debut in the late 1950’s, advances in telemedicine has contributed to seniors having the choice to age in place. In addition, the patients that reside in rural areas that previously had difficulties accessing a physician, can now reach them virtually.
Physicians and patients can share information in real time from one computer screen to another. And they can even see and capture readings from medical devices at a faraway location. Using telemedicine software, patients can see a doctor for diagnosis and treatment without having to wait for an appointment. Patients can consult a physician at the comfort of their home.
The concept of telemedicine and telehealth could be still new to providers and physicians given the especially slow adoption of technology in healthcare.
However, the continue advances in technology and healthcare innovation has greatly expands its usability. Moreover, the demand from new generation of tech savvy population has pushed for its rapid adoption due to convenience, cost saving and intelligent features it brings.
It’s now a matter of time for healthcare system, medical group, providers and even solo practitioner integrate telemedicine as part of their medical services offering.
Telemedicine is simply defined as, There are 3 common types of telemedicine, which include but not limited to:
It can be simple or complex for a provider to implement telemedicine into their practice. For solo practitioner and clinic, most just require a basic to start delivering telemedicine consultation.
For providers looking to have a more they need to consider their existing workflow and incorporate the telemedicine software solution into their practice. Usually these software need to have waiting room, EHR and payment function.
For large medical group or hospitals, they usually requires custom telehealth solution to fit into their existing workflow to lessen the disruption of adopting telemedicine as its harder to train large number of physicians to change their behaviour.
Besides the software part, it’s adivisable for provider to do due diligence on the telehealth regulations, and reimbursement policy for their country or state, which will be discussed later in this article.
Organizations will have to of implementing telemedicine. Many organizations decide to partner with a telemedicine company to make the transition and implementation easier.
Telemedicine is conducted in a number of ways. The most basic is just a simple video call (like you normally do with family and friends), however most countries required secured HIPAA compliant video conference tool, so telemedicine company such as VSee also provides this kind of secure and simple to use solution for providers.
There are also some telemedicine is conducted with portable telemedicine kits that include a computer and mobile medical devices, such as ECGs or vital signs monitors. High resolution digital cameras are also available for physicians to send detailed medical images to specialists.
Lastly, there is robust telemedicine software that allows everything from data storage to live video conferencing. Overall, there are many innovative telemedicine equipment to meet the various needs of patients today.
