Present and Future of Telemedicine and its Providers
Present State of Telemedicine:
Today, the field of telemedicine is changing faster than before. The exponential growth of technology in recent years has led to an increase in the affordability and accessibility of telemedicine services. Telemedicine providers offer 24/7 access to medical care, staffing solutions for hospitals and virtual visits to doctors.
With the popularity of smartphones on the rise, a wide variety of mobile applications have been developed by telemedicine providers for easy monitoring of consumer health. Simple portable devices have been designed for monitoring body vitals such as glucose levels and blood pressure for a patient's use at home.
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Clinical Guidelines for Telemedicine:
Almost every service has a set of established guidelines to be followed, and telemedicine is no exception. While telemedicine providers and users are yet to have a standard set of guidelines, the American Medical Association (AMA) has put together a set of clinical guidelines pertaining to telemedicine services, some of which are as follows:
When to use: Telemedicine should not be used for medical conditions that require in-person examination by a licensed physician or doctor.
Notifying the patient: It is necessary for telemedicine providers to inform the patient in advance about how telemedicine services work, the limits of technology to be used and the communication protocols.
Patient evaluation and management: It is the duty of healthcare service providers to determine the appropriate telemedicine service for a patient.
They are responsible for the following:
• Determining the requirements of the patient.
• Connecting the patient with a suitable physician/doctor.
• Recording patient data for use in diagnosis and storage in the database.
Billing information: Telemedicine providers should keep their patients informed of the medical costs beforehand.
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Barriers
for Telemedicine:
Although telemedicine is
gradually gaining popularity, it has to overcome a few barriers that stand in
its way of widespread usages, such as administrative barriers, state
legislation restrictions, state-specific licensing requirements and
patient-doctor reimbursement policies.
The
Future of Telemedicine:
Market analysts predict
that telemedicine will be a $36.3 billion industry by 2020. In a group of
patients who were surveyed, 75% of them reported their interest in telemedicine
services and predict a bright future for it. Advancements in the fields of
technology such as virtual reality, coupled with a constantly growing user-base
of telemedicine services reveal an exciting future for telemedicine. Robotic
arms which can be controlled remotely and smart watches, which connect to
health-trackers via a wireless network or Bluetooth to instantly notify the
user of any discrepancies will play an important role in telemedicine in the
not-so-distant future.
ABOUT US
Mediklik is an online
healthcare portal which provides patients a virtual platform to get the doctor
consultation at home. Mediklik also provides other features like personal
health records, symptom checker, disease database and drug interaction tool.
