By Telehealth is an emerging field that can assist monitor and managing persistent health conditions.
How often have you heard that the internet has revolutionized modern life? It has most likely impacted how you communicate with family and friends, shop for goods and services, and even look for health-related information. There are several telehealth technologies available to assist you in managing your health care and receiving the services you require. Are you making the most of them? Telehealth refers to the use of digital information and communication technology, such as computers and mobile devices, to access and manage health care services remotely. These might be technology that you use at home or that your doctor employs to improve or supplement healthcare services.
Consider how telehealth might assist you if you suffer from diabetes. Some or all of the following options are available to you:
- Upload meal logs, prescriptions, dosage, and blood sugar readings to a nurse who answers electronically via a mobile phone or another device.
- Watch a video about carb counting and then get an app for your phone.
- Use an app to calculate how much insulin you need based on your diet and exercise level.
- See your test results, make appointments, seek medication refills, and email your doctor via an online patient portal.
- Online ordering is available for testing supplies and medicines.
- Rather than making an appointment with a specialist, get a mobile retinal photo screening in your doctor’s office.
- When you need a flu vaccination, a foot check, or other preventative care, get an email, SMS, or phone reminder.
The following are some of the objectives of telehealth, often known as e-health or m-health (mobile health):
- People who live in remote or isolated places should have access to health services.
- Make services more accessible to persons who have restricted mobility, time, or transit alternatives.
- Access to medical professionals should be made available.
- Improve communication and care coordination between members of a healthcare team and patients.
- Provide assistance with health-care self-management.
- The telehealth services listed below may be valuable to your health care.
What kinds of care may be obtained through telehealth?
- Results of a lab test or an x-ray
- Treatment for mental health issues, such as online therapy, counseling, and medication management
- Migraines and urinary tract infections are examples of recurring diseases.
- Skin problems
- Management of prescriptions
- Colds coughs, and stomachaches are examples of urgent care conditions.
- Follow-up after surgery
- Attention deficit disorder (ADD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) treatment and follow-up appointments (ADHD)
- Physical and occupational therapy are two types of treatment.
Benefits of telehealth
Virtual visits are becoming increasingly common. While in-person visits to the doctor’s office may be important in some situations, there are several advantages to telehealth therapy.
- Everyone’s exposure to COVID-19 is reduced when physical contact is limited.
- You can access health care wherever you are — at home, at work, or even in your automobile – with virtual visits.
- Virtual visits eliminate the need for travel, time off from work, and child care.
- Virtual health care technologies might help you get an appointment sooner.
- Increased access to professionals who are based in locations other than your hometown
- Telehealth is not appropriate for everyone or for all medical conditions. Make sure you talk to your doctor about any downsides or hazards.
Telehealth has been around since the 1960s, with one of the early uses being the monitoring of astronauts’ physiological characteristics. Several technologies and communications tools have been adopted throughout the years, due to technological advancements, to facilitate the transfer of patient information for suggestions and consultations across practically every medical environment and specialty. Telehealth services for patients have also allowed for remote patient monitoring, consumer health communication and information, and provide medical education. Networked systems that connect tertiary medical facilities to outlying centers and clinics in rural regions, home phone-video connections, point-to-point connections to hospitals and clinics, web-based e-health service sites, and home monitoring linkages are some of the most common delivery mechanisms.
For a time, however, the cost of adopting and investing in telehealth services was too high, and the dissemination of telehealth resolutions and hospital-based networks was too expensive. However, as a result of technology advancements, better internet connections are now powerful and inexpensive, resulting in a larger return on investment in telehealth than ever before. Telehealth services may be used to link clinicians with patients in various places via real-time voice and video in practically all medical professions. In other circumstances, service centers can gather data remotely and transfer it to a central monitoring system for interpretation via telemedicine.
Outlying healthcare institutions are sometimes required to move patients unnecessarily or to refer patients to difficult situations that are beyond the scope of local doctors’ competence. As a result, patients are routinely transported across vast distances for direct care or telehealth consultations with specialists. These referrals and transfers can be expensive for the patient since they pose clinical, operational, and financial issues for all parties involved. Telemedicine has the potential to address these difficulties, reduce trip frequency, and provide significant savings and returns for all parties involved. Hospitals, clinics, and other health institutions may use telehealth services to guarantee that patients receive the finest treatment possible, whether it’s in their hometown or hundreds of miles away.
