Telehealth has revolutionized the healthcare sector, enabling the delivery of medical services irrespective of geographical location, all thanks to technological advancements. According to research conducted by Grand View Research, the telehealth industry boasted a valuation of approximately US$41.4 billion in 2019. Predictions assume a steady growth trajectory with an expected annual increase of 15.1% between 2020 and 2027.
What is Telehealth?
Providing health care services remotely using telecommunication is called telehealth. There are two primary cases involved:
Virtual Visits: This refers to consultations between doctors and patients using video conferences or secure messaging and tracking health status. These innovative approaches have become increasingly popular, ensuring timely healthcare delivery.
Patient Portals and Health Apps: Patient portals function as secure online platforms where patients access their medical records, appointment scheduling, prescription requests, and communication with doctors. An example is medication management apps which help manage medications effectively by providing features such as reminders, and dosage tracking. You may want to check out what patient portal software options are available.
The Main Benefits of Telehealth
Telehealth, with its innovative use of technology, brings forth a multitude of benefits to patients, healthcare providers, and healthcare systems:
Healthcare Access: It eliminates geographic barriers, allowing patients to communicate with doctors from their homes. This increases accessibility, ensuring quality health care regardless of location.
Decreased Appointment Waiting Times: Telemedicine addresses the issue of long appointment waits by facilitating efficient scheduling of virtual appointments. Patients benefit from shorter wait times as they avoid transportation and waiting room delays.
Cost-Efficiency: Patients reduce expenses on travel, while health providers can optimize resource allocation and minimize administrative expenses.
The Most Popular Technology in Telehealth
Telehealth relies on a variety of technologies to facilitate remote healthcare delivery and improve patient outcomes. Some of the major types of technologies used in telemedicine today include:
Video Conferencing Platforms: These tools simplify real-time communication between doctors and patients, enabling virtual appointments, and follow-ups.
Remote Monitoring Devices: They transmit data collected from patients like symptoms, medication adherence, etc., and perform remote diagnosis. Examples include smartwatches, blood pressure monitors, glucometers, electrocardiogram monitors, etc.
Mobile Health (mHealth) Applications: Such devices provide information such as; tracking tools, for example, fitness trackers, medication reminders, and other educational resources that enable individuals to take control over the wellness they want. A drug comparison tool within these apps helps patients make informed decisions about their medications, comparing costs and options for better health management.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning: Some examples of AI include image recognition for radiology and pathology; natural language processing for speech-to-text transcription; predictive analytics for risk stratification; virtual assistants for administrative tasks etc.
Telehealth vs. Telemedicine
At times, there is confusion between “telehealth” and “telemedicine,” although they have distinct roles in remote healthcare. Telehealth encompasses health monitoring, administrative meetings, and offering remote educational opportunities for doctors. Telehealth may involve activities like online health education classes, remote administrative meetings, virtual training sessions for healthcare professionals, and telemedicine consultations.
In contrast, telemedicine focuses on providing clinical services to patients remotely, often involving live interactions between patients and doctors. It involves virtual consultations between healthcare providers and patients, remote monitoring of patient’s health data, and transmission of medical images and records for diagnosis and treatment purposes.
The Future of Telehealth
Today, telehealth is undergoing a rapid transformation driven by AI and machine learning technologies. Diagnostic accuracy is improving with AI-based algorithms that predict disease progression and determine the right treatment interventions based on unique patient data.
Furthermore, telehealth is increasingly being incorporated into established healthcare structures by means of connected EHRs along with secure messaging systems supporting interoperability aspects. Through this integration; it becomes possible to organize a multi-disciplinary care team thereby providing coordinated care across various settings as well as specialties.
