Tele Medicine Platforms

Telemedicine Platform, Telehealth eHealth and Electronic OPD

Telemedicine is a practice where the provider and patient are not present for face to face interaction, still, the patients can get the facilities of health care. Due to modern technology use in telemedicine platforms it is now possible as doctors can consult patients by using video chats applications which we also know as telehealth.

Table of Content ·         Definition of Telemedicine ·         What is Telemedicine? ·         How is telemedicine conducted ·         What is Tele-medicine ·         What is Telehealth ·         Telehealth Platforms ·         Benefits of Telehealth ·         Telemedicine Platforms ·         Best Telemedicine Platform ·         What are the advantages of Telemedicine ·         Differences Between Telemedicine and Telehealt ·         Healthtech Sector ·         Health Apps ·         Medical Apps ·         Benefits of Tele medicine or e OPD to Providers ·         Benefits of Telemedicine to Patient ·         Telemedicine Benefits to Players like Online OPD Registration ·         What are the disadvantages of telemedicine ·         Uncertainty in Policies related to E OP ·         Reduction in Face to Face Consultation Expensive Technology

Telemedicine Definition

Tele-medicine is a perfect tool for healthcare. Telemedicine can be defined as a tool that makes healthcare more reachable, less expensive and boosts up patient engagement and is also known as doctor online. People living in rural and remote areas are getting health advantages as these people can reach the doctor virtually instead of visiting them physically.

 

Telemedicine Meaning

Due to the introduction of the telemedicine, patients and doctor can speak in real time from one screen to another screen.  Patients do not have to wait for appointments from doctors and also do not require to stand in the long queue of hospitals for their turns. They can consult a doctor from their home and offices in their comfort zone.

Physicians slowly adopted the idea of telemedicine and telehealth.

However, due to the increase in demand from the tech-savvy population, it is continuously expanding and adopted as E-OPD has features such as cost-efficient, more accessible, and time-saving.

Conducting of Tele medicine

What is Telemedicine platform?

We can describe it as platform for “the remote delivery of healthcare services”. There are various kinds of tele-medicine, but the three common types of tele medicine are:

1.     Interactive medicine - It permits patients and doctors to interact in real-time while sustaining HIPAA compliance
2.     Store and Forward – It allows providers to share patient details with a physician in another place.
3.     Remote Patient Monitoring – It permits faraway caregivers to observe patients that stay at home by using mobile medical devices to gather data (e.g. blood sugar or blood pressure)

How is tele medicine conducted?

There are numerous ways to conduct tele medicine. The mode being used most widely is simply video calling. It is similar to a video call to family and friends. 

Health providers can conduct tele medicine with portable tele-medicine kits which involve mobile and computer medical equipment such as ECG machines or important sign machines. Digital cameras with high resolutions are also available for comprehensive medical images to doctors and specialists.

At last, there are various telemedicine software that permits everything from storing data to live video conference. In general, there are numerous advanced tele medicine devices to meet the different needs of patients today.

What is Tele-medicine?

As per the World Health Organization (WHO), we can define tele medicine as “healing from a distance”. Telecommunications technology and information technologies are utilized to deliver medical services to patients residing in remote areas. The practitioners for digital imaging transmission, video conferences, and medical analysis now use Telemedicine.

Nowadays, a person does not require to visit the clinic or doctor to have a treatment. Instead of visiting personally, individuals can make video and audio call to physicians and receive the treatment and advice from the comfort of their locations (home and offices). This Feature is also growing in third world countries so we also find telemedicine in India like countries.

What is Telehealth?

HealthIT.gov describes telehealth as "the use of electronic data and broadcast communications advancements to help and support long-distance clinical medical care, patient and expert well being training, public health and health organization."

The definition of Telemedicine and Telehealth sound similar but there is a difference. Tele health also includes non-clinical services such as meetings, CME, training for, etc. as compared to telemedicine. It is not a particular service, but a combination of multiple ways to improve patient health.

Overall, telecare and telemedicine fall under the umbrella of telehealth i.e. telehealth is a superset of telecare and telemedicine.

Telehealth Platforms

While most are telemedicine platforms it is very hard to find a true telehealth platform. Only VVFIT is the one that can be regarded as a complete and best telehealth platform.

Benefits of Telehealth or Tele-medicine Project

• Ease in Health Services Operation
• Proper appointment and show ups
• Higher client satiation
• Higher Degree of Quality Health Services
• Cost Reduction
• Time Reduction in Health Services
• Greater Outreach
• Precision in Services due to Automation
• Enhancement in Services due to saving of all Practice Resources
• Better Records Maintenance Procedure and Storage

The above list of the benefits of telehealth is inexhaustive.

Telemedicine Platforms

These days several telemedicine platforms have sprung up in the online market but none of them has gained any prominence yet. Most players in this segment seem to be at the experimental stage only. VVFIT is the only proper and the best telemedicine platform.

Best Telemedicine Platform or Telemedicine Centre

As no telemedicine platform has gained considerable success while many keep claiming no one can be determined as a winner while there are a few likes of VVFIT taking lead in this segment yet.

Telemedicine Slideshare or Telemedicine PPT

What are the Advantages of Telemedicine?

With the rapid advancements in technology, tele medicine is going to stay in the healthcare sector. At the present time, everyone from patients to provider wants to avail the benefits of tele-medicine.

What are the Differences between Tele-medicine and Telehealth?

Recently, rapid innovation in the healthcare sector and technology has brought the new terms in utilization. Terms such as policymakers, advocacy groups, healthcare systems, etc. are used incorrectly while the discussion in medicine and technology. Mostly, the terms “telemedicine” and “telehealth” are used in place of each other, but there are differences for sure. Technically speaking telehealth has a wider perspective with even some of the health IoT systems used while telemedicine is primarily like simple online OPD.

Healthtech Sector

Telemedicine or telehealth are parts of health sector so these can also be taken as derived from health tech sector.

Health Apps

These are app services under health tech sector itself. These merely provide health related services through apps. These can be like heart rate monitor app, pulse rate monitor app, body activity monitor app, medicine reminder app, telemedicine app, medical appointment scheduling app, etc.

Medical apps

Most health apps medical apps but health apps have a wider perspective. In this way medical apps are subsets of health apps and health apps are superset segment of medical apps.

 

Benefits of Telemedicine or e OPD to Providers

Tele-medicine is used in healthcare systems, physician practices, and trained nursing facilities to take care in a more efficient way. There are various tele medicine software which are integrated with features like AI diagnosis, medical records. These aid medical streaming devices which help medical service providers in better diagnosis and treatment. It also permits providers to observe the patient in real time.

By utilizing tele-medicine revenue can be increase for health service providers. It is because doctors do not require to hire more staff or to have large office space.

What are Benefits of Tele-medicine to Patients?

Tele-medicine has numerous benefits for patients. Earlier, patients who face difficulties in reaching to the physician can access the facilities from their comfort of homes. Seniors who are in trouble due to their age can avail services by using medical streaming equipment.

Also, the risk of spreading contagious diseases reduces as patients with such diseases do not require visiting clinics. This also facilitates them by not requiring to expose to doctors in crowded waiting rooms.

Tele medicine also benefits patients in the given below methods

•     Transportation: Patients can dodge spending money or killing time in traffic with video calling.
•    No missing work: In the present day, individuals can plan a session during a work break in the office.

Telemedicine Benefits to Players like Online OPD Registration

It is difficult to prove this point but big players like Health systems such as Hospitals are gaining from the tele-medicine. With the improvement in technology, the treatment offers cost saving and will become more evident.

Telemedicine Satellite

Telemedicine first conceptualized in the US but it has spread even in the third world countries. The use of satellites is very necessary in creating Medical or Health IoT (Internet of Things). China is making meticulous studies and has advanced too much extent in it with the program on use of telemedicine satellites. India’s ISRO Telemedicine programme started long ago in 2001 that connects connecting remote/rural/medical college hospitals and Mobile Units (MSUs) through Indian satellites to major specialty hospitals in cities and towns. ISRO Telemedicine network covers various states or regions of its country.

What are the disadvantages of tele medicine?

With the advantages of tele medicine, here come the disadvantages of tele-medicine as well. As the field is developing exponentially, various challenges will also occur.

Uncertainty in Policies related to E OPD and ehealth

As the industry is growing, there is uncertainty faced by the policymakers in regard to reimbursement policies, privacy protection, healthcare laws, etc. Besides this, every state has their own telemedicine or ehealth laws.

Reduction in Face to Face Consultations with ehealth

A few doctors and patients face difficulties to adjust with tele medicine, particularly senior people. Doctors also worry about the mismanagement and misconduct of the patient. Along with this, there is a chance of occurrence of an error in technology. 

Is Telemedicine Expensive Technology?

People require training for the adoption and implementation of new systems as staff members may face challenges to adjust to the changes. It involves a lot of time and money. This is also giving rise to Health IoT or Internet of Things. Though it is expensive in the beginning, in the future there are positive returns on the investment.

NBThe information is on the basis of the most prevalent media information and is not a medical advice.