Telemedicine: What is it?
ft. Benefits and Shortcomings
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the extent to which technology can be used in various areas has become clear to humanity. We go online shopping more than ever, hang out with friends virtually, and go to school on our computers. In other words, it is safe to say that technology has dominated our lives more than ever. One of the fields that can take advantage of technology in these unprecedented times (and of course, beyond) is healthcare. This is done through nothing but the signature feature of digital health: telemedicine.
So, what is it?
Telemedicine refers to the delivery of healthcare services remotely through the means of technology, i.e., phone calls and video calls. In most cases, telemedicine is used to overcome the physical distance between the patient and the care provider or assist patients who have difficulty leaving their house, like the elderly or patients with disabilities. Additionally, in the recent case of COVID-19, telemedicine is being used to substitute the in-person delivery of healthcare, thus reducing the risks of contracting the virus. In fact, the spread of contagious diseases can be reduced through the use of telemedicine since individuals will no longer have to be exposed to infected people in crowded waiting rooms.
There are, in general, three types of telemedicine:
- Interactive Medicine
- Store and Forward
- Remote Patient Monitoring
Interactive Medicine allows for real-time communication between the patient and the physician. It is basically like going to the doctor’s office — but through your computer.
Store and Forward permits a third-party organization to collect the patient’s information and send it to a physician in another location for evaluation. This one is more like communicating with your doctor through email.
Last but not least, Remote Patient Monitoring enables care providers to monitor a patient’s conditions, like blood sugar and pressure, remotely using mobile devices.
Telemedicine vs. Telehealth
Now that we have an idea of what telemedicine is, it is a good time to distinguish between telemedicine and telehealth, two digital health tools that are often interpreted as synonymous. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines telemedicine as “healing from distance”. On the other hand, HealthIT.gov (the Official Website of The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology in the USA) refers to telehealth as “the utilization of electronic information and telecommunications technologies to support and promote long-distance clinical health care, patient and professional health education, public health and health administration.” These two definitions of telemedicine and telehealth sound almost identical, with one distinguishing difference: unlike telemedicine, in addition to clinical services, telehealth focuses on remote non-clinical services (i.e., medical education, physician training, administrative meetings) as well. In other words, telehealth refers to a broader range of remote healthcare services. Hence, it is all-encompassing, with telemedicine falling under telehealth’s umbrella.
Benefits
As a revolutionizing healthcare infrastructure, telemedicine provides some awesome benefits.
Telemedicine is remote, hence enabling the patients to overcome transportation limitations. During extreme weather, there is no need to travel to the doctor’s office for an appointment; instead, this can easily be done through video consultations. In this way, transportation costs are avoided as well (and we have to mention the escape that telemedicine provides from long hours in traffic, too!).
Thanks to telemedicine, patients with difficulties leaving homes — like seniors and patients with disabilities — can now access healthcare from the comfort of their houses. Scheduling is also made easier through telemedicine since the time spent travelling to and from the doctor’s office is taken out of the process.
Telemedicine enables patients to overcome childcare and eldercare challenges as well. Those who struggle to find care options for a vulnerable group no longer need to leave the house to visit their doctor, making healthcare more accessible to them.
Shortcomings
Despite the numerous benefits of telemedicine, there are some areas that can be considered as “downsides”.
Technology is expensive
The essential component of telemedicine is some form of access to technological devices and the internet. Poor to no access to the internet in some rural areas and in some underdeveloped countries makes telemedicine less accessible to all, a point that might result in telemedicine being reserved for the richer people only.
Unclear policies
Despite improvements in the recent years to regulate telemedicine, because technology is growing at a fast pace, there are still some uncertainties regarding policies. The areas under these uncertainties are reimbursement policies (should physicians be paid the same for telemedicine as in-person care), privacy protection, and healthcare laws.
Fewer face-face interactions
As humans, we are social beings. Hence, telemedicine might not always be our preferable form of contact with our physician. Furthermore, power outages and lost internet connections sometimes make it harder to have a smooth visit, something that does not happen very often in a face-to-face interaction. And, we cannot deny the fact that technology cannot always capture what humans can do, and for the diagnoses that require a physician to physically touch some part of the body, telemedicine fails to provide all the essential needed components (unless being able to touch someone from afar becomes possible some day!).
Considering telemedicine’s benefits and still-to-be-solved shortcomings, it has played a significant role in making healthcare more accessible to everyone. At the current pace at which technology is becoming an inseparable part of our daily lives, telemedicine holds great promises to facilitate the fair distribution of health — especially during unprecedented times, i.e., a worldwide pandemic (watch the video bellow). We should all keep an eye on telemedicine; after all, it is referred to by many as “The Future of Healthcare.”
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References
- Cranford, Lauren. “Telemedicine vs. Telehealth: What’s the Difference?” Chiron, https://chironhealth.com/blog/telemedicine-vs-telehealth-whats-the-difference/. Accessed 17 Feb 2021.
- Monaghesh, E., Hajizadeh, A. “The role of telehealth during COVID-19 outbreak: a systematic review based on current evidence.” NCBI, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7395209/. Accessed 16 Feb 2021.
- “Telemedicine vs Telehealth: Here’s How Telehealth and Telemedicine Differ From Each Other.” Dapasoft.com, https://www.dapasoft.com/telehealth-vs-telemedicine/. Accessed 17 Feb 2021.
- “What is Telemedicine?” VSee.com, http://tlp.law.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/tlp/article/view/160/172. Accessed 16 Feb 2021.
