Today, telemedicine is used in medical fields such as dermatology, behavioral health, and cardiology as a way to provide better care to communities underserved by doctors, hospitals, or both; it is also seen as a way to dramatically reduce the cost of treating health conditions, including hypertension, diabetes and sleep apnea, which benefit from continuous monitoring of the patient’s condition.
1. Patients undergo home rehabilitation
When patients leave the emergency room or the ICU, the process of care is often just beginning. This is especially true for patients who are recovering from a stroke or who suffer from other neurological conditions such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease or dementia. In many cases, these patients find it difficult to get to a health facility, whether they are in an urban or rural setting. The use of telemedicine technology in rehabilitation addresses these issues in several ways: by performing cognitive or psychiatric assessments, by leading group therapy sessions, by providing patients with online resources and by remotely monitoring a patient. pedometer readings to make sure an exercise regimen is up to par.
2. Improve Oral health with store-and-forward telemedicine
Teledentia typically uses store-and-forward telemedicine, which allows a doctor (or dentist) to acquire medical images or other relevant data, evaluate them, and send them to another doctor for review. (Of the major types of telemedicine technology, store-and-forward is the least interactive, since it does not require two or more parties, or a physical examination.) The main benefit of telemedicine in dentistry is therefore to share records between dentists and dental specialists to determine if a certain procedure is necessary and, if so, when it should take place. Specialists can also help dentists spot problem areas and suggest preventative measures to a patient to avoid expensive and complicated procedures. As with other uses of telemedicine, this collaboration helps patients in rural communities or other underserved communities who may not otherwise have access to specialist physician.
3. Better Healthcare Applications
- eSkin Sleep and Lounge – A Tokyo based company called Xenoma has developed an innovative wearable pajama set called eSkin Sleep and Lounge to track your sleep pattern, heart rate, breathing, and other vital signs. This washable technology is best suited for older people, as it can even set off an alarm if it detects that you’ve tripped or fallen.
- Atmos Faceware – a stylish air filter that goes across the face, covering your mouth and nose, claiming that it can provide up to 50 times more clean air quality than typical face masks available on the market. It comes with the ability to track and analyze the wearer’s breathing.
- Owlet Monitor Duo – Owlet’s baby monitor duo is a monitor device that provides additional features along with its basic hear, see, and know functionalities that help you to track your infant’s heart rate and oxygen levels.
4. Alleviating the Nursing Shortage
In addition to nurse burnout, telehealth services can help alleviate current and future nursing shortages. With more than half a million RNs to retire by 2022, telemedicine could help alleviate this loss of on-site staff by enabling doctors and even nurses in different locations to provide medical support to patients. patients without having to travel to stressful resources in a physical facility. Telehealth nursing positions are developing more and more these days as they become a more mainstream part of the continuum of care.
5. Treat strokes faster
The sooner a stroke victim receives treatment, the better their chances of survival. In many cases, treatment depends on being able to identify key symptoms and administer a drug known as tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) within three to five hours of a stroke. Unfortunately, emergency department physicians do not always have the expertise to make these decisions, and small hospitals or rural hospitals do not always have a neurologist on call. Get into the tele-attack services, which improve stroke treatment in several ways:
- Patients treated in hospitals that were part of a tele-attack network in Georgia received tPA approximately 20 minutes faster than patients in hospitals outside the network.
- Telestroke has helped facilities in remote areas of Alberta reduce emergency transfers to Edmonton University Hospital by up to 92%. These ambulance or helicopter transports are expensive, long and sometimes dangerous.
- Video conferencing has led to more accurate diagnoses and treatments than telephone conversations in the Imperial Valley of California and Boston. Arizona neurologists and radiologists have been able to use smartphone image sharing apps that have proven to be as accurate as computer image archiving and communication systems 92% of the time.
