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In this article you will learn more about the notions of telemedicine, telehealth and health information technologies, and how much your business prosperity relies on their adoption.
The users of mobile health apps – are they content and satisfied with their treatment experiences and results in comparison with those who prefer traditional healthcare methods? Let us have a look at some numbers based on patient responses study (Table 1). The alternative way – telemedicine – is spreading fastly, no news and no wonder. So many mobile health applications are accessible nowadays, and they have already made a difference in the quality of medical care. First of all, booking doctor visits became easier, then it is already obvious that online consultations’ quality of care and in-person ones are similar. And of course, the COVID-19 reality created a vivid choice option for using a telehealth app instead of going to see a therapist in his office and risk being infected because of the close contact.
Technology Used in Telemedicine
It is amazing how technology impacts telemedicine. First, the use of smartphones filled our life and every aspect of our daily routines. In addition to it, we have tablets and wearables like fitness and sleep trackers, smart watches, and more specific purpose devices such as heart rate recording tools, etc. With a nice Internet speed these apps do wonders in terms of patient-doctor dialogues via chat, audio or video call immediately and that is why more effectively.
Officially telemedicine is defined as digital tools for online communication and data tech for medical services when participants are in different places. In other words, an alternative way of traditional clinical method extension.
In 2020, telehealth practice had increased by almost 80 times compared to the pre-pandemic measure. The reason we know so well, and this tendency for telemedicine technologies preferences will go on. Telemedicine is also great in excluding some limits for those who have functional issues, and makes it easier to get quality care for rural areas residents.
More and more countries worldwide introduce telemedicine platforms within their medical systems for the COVID-19 spread prevention and taking advantage of the modern technology for the society’s favor, health and comfort.
Telemedicine model of care allows fixing in-person doctor appointments as well as showing up in an online consultation. It may be either a call or chat. Moreover, patients can get primal diagnoses. It is incredibly comfortable to do all this from home via a private app with a two-way messaging structure on smartphones. If we compare it to the traditional medicine visit, it is limited to a phone call, as a rule.
In every healthcare perspective, patients are happy with the service quality. The adoption of telehealth software indeed has some walls and milestones, yet medical settings keep implementing them more and more. It has been already proven the therapist’s nice attitude and confidence towards telemedicine in treating severe conditions, granting patients with healthcare knowledge and building up the patient-physician relationship.
Categories of telemedicine technology
Actual-Time Communication
Most likely, actual-time communication is the first thing we associate with telehealth technology. It is performed when the two members of the conversation are in distant locations with the help of audio or video call devices, it may be either a smartphone or PC. It often happens that during an in-person visit at a physician’s office there is the need to reach another expert like a cardiologist, for example, for additional and immediate advice. It is also great when a patient needs doctor’s advice but cannot make an appointment because of a job or a business trip. The regulations for these kinds of calls vary from state to state but it is already a part of lots of medical settings globally.
Remote patient monitoring
Remote patient monitoring is safeguarding patient health and his medical data online, remotely, from another distant location. It is a very convenient way of streamlining patient consent with testing and it is money saving in case of constant medical supervision. It is usually applied to the chronic diseases handling and care, mostly of diabetes, heart issues, asthma, and more.
Store-and-forward
Store-and-forward is about medical data sharing between providers. It is one of the first patterns of telehealth technology in healthcare. If your therapist, for instance, sends blood test results to a laboratory scientist for additional study, they are taking advantage of a technology of this kind. And the examples and types of this data sharing are so much more. It is worth noting, all the same, that store-and-forward tech form is not necessarily a part of state telemedicine repayment regulations.
Telehealth and telemedicine technologies aim to encourage and set up the comfort and quality of remote care, public education and health with the help of digital data devices. Among these two, the wider notion is telehealth, and telemedicine is clinical services only performed online.
There is a bit of confusion when the two notions are used mutually. Governmental regulations have no common opinion on their definition either.
The powerful growth of mobile technologies cleared the road for telehealth devices business to flourish, and there is no doubt anymore that these digital tools improve our life greatly. Telehealth software is also about combining more technologies like screens that spot different maladies, and more. The telemedicine mode of care has proven similar quality as the in-person consultations in hospital offices, and people appreciated them so much during the COVID-19 pandemic especially.
Moreover, the great part of positive outcomes refers to those who are chronically ill. Facing their disease and being able to improve their health condition without having to do multiple trips to a hospital, less stress and time and money saved is a gift of the modern technological world.
Our development team here at ZenBit can be your partner in creating a telehealth product or boost your business setting with innovative software that makes care workflow a way better. We invite you to call us today, do not hesitate.
Have a nice day, see you in our next blog post!
