In the health sector, telehealth has become a necessity in the medical field. While telehealth services have been available and slowly accepted as an option for medical care over the years, it seems the Coronavirus pandemic and the unique challenges created by it have forced both doctors and patients who have been reluctant to venture into this service, to finally accept telehealth as part of their standard of care. But what is telehealth, and what are the major benefits it offers? We will briefly answer these and other related questions here.
What is Telehealth?
Simply put, telehealth is the delivery of healthcare, distribution of health-related services and information through telecommunications and virtual technology. It is an all-encompassing aspect of medical technology that bridges the various gaps in the doctor patient relationship, and communication between medical professionals such as doctors and other healthcare providers. Everything from healthcare services to health education and to health information services, are all included in Telehealth.
What Are The Benefits of Telehealth?
Telehealth is becoming a necessity as more people in the healthcare industry and the general public have come to understand the benefits it offers during the Coronavirus pandemic. The most important of these benefits include:
- It expands access to care and has the ability to reach
- It improves access to medical specialists
- It improves patient engagement
- It provides adequate support for self-management of healthcare.
- It significantly cuts patient costs and reduces practice overhead.
- It increases practice revenue and many more benefits.
What are the Applications of Telehealth?
Telehealth is applicable to different aspects of the healthcare industry. Depending on such factors as clinical practice, patients’ health conditions and needs, as well as treatment conditions, the following areas of applications will always be beneficial:
- Online patient portal
- Virtual appointments
- Remote monitoring
- Collaborative medical care
- Personal health records
- Personal health apps, and more
What Is The Potential Of Telehealth?
Telehealth embodies advances in medical technology. Technology, as we know, has limitless potential. We can, therefore conclude that telehealth is the present and future of the healthcare industry. Already, patients can receive care from some of the best specialists who are thousands of miles away and patient monitoring has become very simple and efficient. Studies also indicate that telehealth significantly improves the quality of healthcare delivery, so we can expect it to advance further and offer greater benefits.
Does Telehealth Have Limitations?
Although telehealth is very beneficial and has the potential to transform healthcare even further, there are limitations we can’t just ignore. The risk of fragmented health care is the biggest limitation of telehealth. It can also cause problems such as gaps in care, overuse of medical care, inappropriate use of medications and more. Internet availability, insurance problems and financial constraints are limiting factors also.
Telehealth is rapidly transforming the health sector. The benefits and potential benefits of telehealth far outweigh the possible shortcomings and limitations.
