Remote medicine is one of the healthcare industries that is growing the fastest. The demand for remote medicine (telemedicine) will be worth more than $66 billion by 2021, and $185.66 billion by 2026, according to Mordor Intelligence and Gurufocus.
In 2020, when Coronavirus has circulated worldwide, online consultation became particularly common. However, according to a study, physician acceptance of remote medicine (telehealth) rose from 5% to 22% between 2015 and 2018 (even disregarding statistics for the last two years).
What Is Remote Medicine?
Remote Medicine is a telemedicine service that enables continuous patient condition monitoring and preventive and control check-ups outside medical facilities to be carried out. It involves the use of mobile devices that monitor vital signs making this type of treatment possible.
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Remote medical care involves the patient’s consultations with healthcare professionals using mobile devices or computer. There is no patient-physician contact.
Advancements In Telemedicine Services Today
The growth of emerging technology such as wireless high-speed internet, high-performance computers and mobile devices, a wide range of smart devices, the introduction of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence, along with the trend of digitalization of enterprises, have a positive effect on the healthcare industry.
It is possible to break current telemedicine systems into 3 major groups, such as:
- Telehospital
- Telehome
- Mobile health (mHealth)
What Is Telehospital?
Telehospital facilities allows patients to be in a health facility for remote care. Remote physicians or telehospitalists connect to them via video conference, as if they were in a hospital room, obtaining all the necessary health-related data about a patient through the internet.
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What Is Telehome?
Telehome services offer healthcare facilities at home for patients. People communicate with medical experts using a PC or other devices. Monitoring and remote treatment of patients with chronic conditions or the failure to come to a hospital due to the distance or some other issue is the most common reason why this service is needed.
What Is Mobile Health?
The latest and most rapidly established form of telemedicine service is mobile health. Patients communicate easier with their clinicians, receive suggestions, medications, and treatment via mobile devices. MHealth is a wider concept that includes exercise apps, diet plans, social groups for healthcare and diseases, and wired system control applications.
Benefits Of Remote Medicine To Healthcare Facilities
- The introduction of remote medicine technologies enables healthcare facilities to increase the quality of their services and minimize operating costs at the same time.
- Healthcare professionals minimize travel costs by using online consulting tools.
- Medical professionals save more time now since they don’t have to spend time commuting to help people.
- The use of solutions for remote patient monitoring (RPM) is becoming increasingly common. It helps a doctor to track patients recovering when a hospital presence is still needless after surgery.
- Monitoring and correcting recovery plans of patients suffering from multiple chronic conditions and people following a heart attack or stroke is another benefit of remote medicine.
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Benefits Of Remote Medicine To Patients
- Remote medicine helps to reduce the time that patients have to spend in hospitals, saving them more money.
- Today, via mobile telemedicine applications (an online platform where doctors have profiles), patients can find the appropriate specialist and define their expertise.
- The remote medicine system offers the best health professionals to patients.
- Patients can schedule appointments, manage digital patient cards and prescriptions, including patient’s bills.
- Remote medicine systems do not have boundaries, metaphorically. You may get a consultation from medical professionals from Israel or Switzerland while residing in the USA. That is, it is worldwide.
- Telemedicine offers people living in rural areas with opportunities to get skilled healthcare services. Roads may often take a couple of hours when an individual needs urgent assistance. Also, basic advice obtained in time from a trained specialist can save a life.
Limitations Of Remote Medicine Services
- The high cost of introducing telemedicine is one of the cons. Before this method starts to work and produce income, healthcare service providers must invest a lot of money.
- High risk of violation of personal data is also a major factor that prohibits remote medicine services from being offered.
- Healthcare is among the top 3 sectors specifically affected by cyber attacks. In healthcare systems, large quantities of protected health information (PHI) data are processed, making them the intended target for fraud.
- All applications used in the healthcare industry in the USA must meet the Health Insurance Portability and Transparency Act (HIPAA) rules and specifications. It’s only one of the laws and regulations that software must comply with. This is the idea behind the production of solutions for the healthcare sector by some software development firms. This reality affects the price of production as well.
- Not all medics regard remote healthcare as an effective way to treat patients, considering the development of the telemedicine industry and its advantages. Many experts believe that a video call does not thoroughly evaluate a patient, raising the likelihood of incorrect diagnosis, and condemn this practice.
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Conclusion
Worldwide, the development of remote medicine services is gaining much attention. Do the benefits of telemedicine outweigh the disadvantages?. Healthcare facilities that have agreed to incorporate telemedicine in their workflow, however, must realize that it takes time before remote medicine services begins to generate money.
Will remote medical care completely replace traditional care?. Telemedicine will soon become a normal and inseparable aspect of modern health services. Technology can still not fully replace a live connection with medical professionals, maybe that will change in the future.
You made a good point when you said telemedicine helps patients save money since it would reduce the time they have to spend in hospitals. My daughter Layla has a chronic disease, so we must always have direct contact with healthcare professionals. Telemedicine would be extremely helpful for us, so I’ll look into telehospital services in our area. Thanks.
I loved learning the different aspects and benefits of remote telehealth for both patients and facilities. It is good to know that telehealth can help to improve the quality of a facility’s services while minimizing operational costs. I think that it would be crucial for health care facilities to choose a telehealth software that is efficient and reliable so they can give their patients the best care possible.