Over the past couple of years, telemedicine has brought a major change in how people think about and provide mental health and other medical services. Telemedicine is not a new idea. It’s been around for more than 40 years and its popularity in recent times is only growing. Medical practices and hospitals are rapidly adopting the concept.
What is Telemedicine?
Telemedicine can be described as the exchange of medical info such as clinical information and delivering health care services remotely via electronic communication. This includes a variety of clinical services using satellite, telephone, internet, and wireless media. The main purpose of telemedicine is to improve an individual’s health.
It’s projected that telemedicine services will have expanded by 18.5% between 2018 and 2023. This is because, through telemedicine, medical staff including doctors are able to evaluate, diagnose, and treat patients remotely.
Telemedicine covers different services, for instance, sending your X-ray digitally to a doctor for evaluation, live chat with a psychologist, instant messaging with a caregiver over a secure mobile application, and monitoring a person’s blood pressure remotely using a medical device.
There are numerous benefits of telemedicine and they include:
- Convenience
Video chats remove the need for you to take time off from work. You can conveniently schedule an appointment over your break, before, or even after work. Also, you can see your doctor wherever you are as long as there’s sufficient privacy.
- Cost and Time Saving
When you see your physician on your computer or mobile device, you save money on public transportation, gas, or parking. Even better, you’ll not waste time traveling or run the risk of being stuck in traffic which might make you late for your appointment or late getting back to your other commitments.
- Eliminates Elder or Child Care Inconveniences
There are many people who have the responsibility of taking care of older adults or children. Looking for alternative care so that you can keep your doctor’s appointment can be difficult, inconveniencing, not to mention expensive-all which can be quite stressful.
Fortunately, telemedicine has provided a solution by allowing you to see your physician while attending to your family obligations.
- Better Health
When you’re able to see your physician as often as you should without the challenges of visiting them physically, you’ll observe better management of your lifestyle, chronic conditions, medication, and any other health issue you may have.
- On-Demand Options
More and more doctors are now embracing telemedicine. So, it’s easier to see your regular physician via video. If, however, this isn’t possible but you’re still in need of remote care, there are on-demand options online. They may not be able to treat every medical issue but they can handle various health problems. There are even insurance companies that pay for this type of medical care.
- Reduced Possibility of Catching New Illnesses
In this day and age, there are many communicable diseases. And, there are people who are more prone to contracting illnesses from others. Doctors are visited by a lot of sick people. While they may do their best to prevent their patients from catching an illness, it might not always be possible especially in a waiting room that’s crowded.
By seeing your doctor online via video, you avoid the risk of exposure to diseases or spreading illness to someone else.
