What is Telemedicine?

The doctor visits of the future!

Definition

Telemedicine is remote clinical care provided by telecommunication and information technology.

The American Telemedicine Association defines it as “the use of medical information exchanged from one site to another via electronic communications to improve a patient’s clinical health status. Telemedicine includes a growing variety of applications and services using two-way video, email, smart phones, wireless tools and other forms of telecommunications technology.”

What it provides

Telemedicine provides primary care and sometimes specialist referrals. Might include a video call with a doctor for a diagnosis using images, vital signs, video clips, and other patient data for later use.

It can also allow for remote patient monitoring for home-bound healthcare or remotely collecting data that is needed frequently. This might be used to supplement visiting nurses to the home.

It Offers consumers a place to receive specialized health information through health professionals, discussion groups, and peer-to-peer support.

Telemedicine can provide medical education for professionals or medical seminars as needed.

Example Story

A sick mother can’t leave her children alone at home to visit the doctor. An in-person visit could take more than an hour in a contaminated environment. Rather than trying to find a babysitter and then making the trip out to the doctor’s office, she makes a call to a telemedicine company. She describes her symptoms in detail to the doctor, receives a diagnosis and a prescription, and then can rest at home.

Pros

More access: Telemedicine provides options for medical advice and diagnoses from remote, distant, or isolated locations. Doctors and medical facilities can reach far beyond their offices, and give service to millions more patients than ever before. More access can also refer to how patients are able to connect with doctors whenever there is

a need. It doesn’t have to be on a schedule. Rather than waiting for doctor’s offices to open, patients can call in as soon as symptoms begin, sometimes saving precious minutes when a life might be in danger.

Better quality: Studies have shown that patient satisfaction with telemedicine is the same or better than in-person visits, especially in cases of mental healthcare.

Pros continued

High demand from patients: Patients want telemedicine for its ease of use and reduction of stress. It reduces the amount of time and travel costs needed to get medical consultations, and it opens up more specialty doctors that would not have time to meet with as many people.

Cost efficiency: Since less time is spent by health professionals and fewer facilities are needed to accommodate more patients, telemedicine is very cost efficient.

Less contamination: If a patient is sick and can be diagnosed using telemedicine, the sick patient doesn’t contaminate a doctor’s office, risking other patients getting sick.

Cons

Telemedicine can be difficult to regulate, though clinical guidelines for certain types of telemedicine are being released.

Though overall costs are generally more efficient, significant time and money has to be spent training staff members and storing all of the pertinent medical information.

Telemedicine can also decrease actual human interaction between doctors and patients, with an increased error risk for diagnoses.

Cons continued

Physicians may have a more difficult time making diagnoses if video and picture quality is not very good.

For some medical specialties, telecommunication may actually take longer than a physical appointment.

How to Choose Telemedicine

Many insurance companies are beginning to offer telemedicine as options in their plans.

Other companies offer primarily telemedicine plans that have very low costs for copays based on time on calls with doctors or the number of calls in a certain period.

You can look for telemedicine plans from EMI Health.

More Resources

Companies that offer telemedicine plans include EMI Health. For more information on EMI Health use this contact link or visit http://emihealth.com/