Telemedicine is transforming healthcare for the better. Here are some important things to know about this dynamic treatment tool.
Improving Coordinated Care
Telemedicine is driving digital transformation for healthcare in several exciting ways. It is enhancing continuity in care by centralizing patient information in a way that providers have traditionally failed to achieve. The sharing of information between facilities has never been easy to achieve. Medical records requests which commonly must be made directly by patients can take weeks to complete. Moreover, providers commonly fail to request prior treatment records. Once a provider has records detailing a patient’s past diagnoses, treatments, and medication history, bringing that information onto their own data management platforms is no small feat. It can entail hours of time inputting data or simply creating references indicating that physical files contain additional patient records.
One of the most remarkable benefits of telemedicine is that it centralizes patient records in an unprecedented way. Accessing data by utilizing the same technology is advantageous. Furthermore, the way that platforms store data simplifies the process of extrapolating information from records and integrating them into another platform. This helps to ensure that nothing gets lost or overlooked when providers are trying to establish a comprehensive patient history.
Removing Barriers To Care
Telemedicne facilitates care for patients who have geographic barriers to treatment. Individuals in rural areas or areas where there is a high concentration of low-income or extremely low-income individuals are commonly unable to seek out care when they need it. Telemedicine removes barriers that prevent geographically isolated or financially limited people from receiving care.
When care is difficult to reach, people often delay treatment for potentially serious conditions for an extended period of time. Unfortunately, in many situations, diagnosing and treating conditions early into their development can have an appreciable effect on patient outcomes. Early detection and intervention keeps progressive conditions from advancing in a way that has a negative impact on patients’ quality of life. Moreover, the scope of treatment necessary to effectively treat a condition is likely to be smaller with early intervention.
Facilitating Better Follow Up
After people have a wellness exam or undergo diagnostic testing, they are generally unlikely to have follow up appointments with providers unless evaluations indicate an urgent need for further analyses and treatment. By making followup treatment more accessible and affordable for patients, primary care telemedicine is fostering better care and outcomes. In particular, this is widening the critical role of preventative treatment in healthcare. For too long, there has been too much emphasis on treatments oriented towards remediating advanced acquired conditions and too little attention towards the crucial underlying utility of preventive medicine.
Coaching and counseling on nutrition is one of the biggest changes that needs to take place in healthcare. Telemedicine opens up the doors to enhanced engagement concentrating on prevention. Virtual settings in which practitioners can work with patients to develop a greater understanding of their individual risk factors and discuss their best options to meaningfully address them.
Providers can use telemedicine platforms to share apps, technological tools, and informational resources with patients that can enable them to play a more informed and active role in their care regimes. Being able to track progress with substantive metrics and accessing learning resources that make patients more conscientious about healthy habits empowers them to take charge of their care.
Long-Term Growth and Outlook
On Wall Street, telehealth platforms saw a major boom in their share prices in mid 2020. While the surge resulted in several large companies in the NASDAQ and NYSE trading with exorbitant price to earnings ratios, the dramatic drop in prices that followed sent investors running away from these stocks in droves.
As it has become increasingly clear that telemedicine is here to stay, investors have been returning to these companies because of their long-term growth potential. By calling attention to the popularity and utility of this growing practice tool, the individuals and investment syndicates championing telemedicine are helping to attract financiers who can make a substantial contribution to development initiatives.
Ultimately, telemedicine can help improve continuity and quality standards in care. Everyone should feel hopeful about the future of virtual care.
