Telemedicine: The essence of Healthcare Industry

Sourav Shekhar

Nowadays we are seeing immense growth in the Healthcare Industry with the help of specialized doctors, medical researchers etc. In the past years, the industry experienced the advent of sophisticated medical instruments & dimensions which helps in reducing the challenges faced by the people. Medical professionals found many approaches to solve the problems of industry “Telemedicine” is one of them.

What is Telemedicine?

Telemedicine refers to those innovations which help in putting the patients & health- care providers in the digital world. In easy words, we can also say that it refers to the “Digital Delivery of Healthcare Services”. It helps in linking the patients & the medical services (Doctors, Healthcare staff) digitally.

Types of Telemedicine: There are three common types of telemedicine given below

1. Interactive medicine: It refers to allowing patients & physicians in communicating with each other in real-time with maintaining HIPAA compliance.
2. Store & Forward: It permits the providers in sharing the patient information with other medical practitioners.
3. Remote patient monitoring: It helps in monitoring the patient’s health through devices like to collect data about blood pressure, blood sugar, pulse rate, etc.

How Telemedicine is modernizing the healthcare industry/Benefits: There are many benefits of telemedicine in the healthcare industry. Some are as follows:

1. Improving the care quality: It emphasizes on patient-centric care, proper diagnosis, effective treatment, etc. Additionally, it reduces the gap between the healthcare team & the patient.
2. Saving money: In chronic diseases treatment periods are long and it burdens the financial pressure on people by hospital stays, transportation costs like ambulances, tests &check-ups, etc. In digital consultation, these expenses can be reduced.
3. Increased access to healthcare services: Many people face challenges of mobility from the rural areas etc. It helps in increasing the availability of proper healthcare facilities for those people.
4. Transforming Healthcare: Telemedicine is transforming the healthcare system using better communication, accessibility, efficient diagnosis, effective treatment, etc.

Disadvantages of Telemedicine: Some of the disadvantages of telemedicine are as follows:

1. Privacy maintenance: Medical professionals offering telemedicine must ensure the confidentiality of the information. Medical information of patients is prone to cyber threats.
2. Insurance-related issues: Health insurance is a common type of insurance. In the case of telemedicine, it is not covered by all insurers.
3. Adoption difficulties: Small healthcare providers face many challenges in transforming themselves according to the need for Telemedicine.
4. Diagnostic Difficulties: Sometimes the primary healthcare provider not able to diagnose the disease and it leads to potentially life-threatening conditions.

Telemedicine during Covid19::In the pandemic times applications of Telemedicine are really helpful:

1. Online Consultations: As we know that in the management of chronic diseases like Hypertension, Diabetes, CKD (Chronic Kidney Diseases) time to time check-up is essential. So, it helps the persons suffering from these diseases in consulting the doctor digitally.
2. AR/VR: Modern advancements in Telemedicine & patient monitoring enable the use of Augmented Reality & Virtual reality in the Healthcare system. It provides Patient-centric treatment and gives physicians better choices in the long run.
3. Modern devices: There are many devices in the market used to check pulse rate, Blood pressure, blood sugar, oxygen saturation, etc. It helps in times of pandemic in monitoring the health.

Telemedicine & Telehealth: In the last decades there were major transformations in the Healthcare industry because of renowned doctors, researchers, etc. Two words are looking relatable Telemedicine & Telehealth. But there are differences between the two.

• Telemedicine: It refers to the use of telecommunication technology to give remote clinical services to patients.
• Telehealth: It refers to the use of electronic information & telecommunication technologies in facilitating long-distance healthcare.

Some facts needed to consider:

• Above than half of the hospitals in the United States have Telemedicine programs.
• The adoption of Digital appointments is also increasing in developing economies.
• Small Healthcare providers in India face a lot of problems in the Establishment of the digital system.
• Telemedicine contributed to approximately one-fourth of the IT healthcare market.

Conclusion:

Despite many challenges in Telemedicine like Privacy protection, Adoption costs, Patient-centric approach, etc. It is becoming popular in patients & Healthcare professionals day by day. The healthcare care system of the US has adopted this technology many years ago. In developing economies like India it faces challenges due to a lack of digital awareness. It also gives a major contribution to the IT healthcare market. Many Healthcare professions are creating new technologies day by day to solve the problems of patients.