Before discussing the importance of telehealth and changing the nursing industry in general, it is important to understand what telehealth is all about. With the advent of new-age technologies and their impact on the fast-paced, growing population, medical health is an essential department that requires special attention. One’s health is of utmost importance. To enhance the medical facilities, we as responsible citizens and experts in this particular field must develop novel and quick solutions to provide optimum precaution and cure. Hence, one of such technological achievements is telecommunications, and by utilizing such a useful resource, health-related services too can be offered.
Telehealth promotes the distribution of various services related to medical health through electronic devices and telecommunication technologies. What can one possibly do if he or she lives in a different country and is pushed to an emergency where he requires medical advice from a physician who lives in another corner of the world? Of course, through telecommunication devices, the whole process of exchanging information becomes smoother and easier. Several health-related services such as medical advice, medical care, monitoring, education, remote admissions, and intervention can be extended to a long-distance patient with telehealth facilities. Hence, the contemporary picture of health and medicine has been radically improved by introducing these electronic telecommunication systems.
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What do we mean by telemedicine, and how is it bridging the gap between the practitioner and the patient?
Telemedicine is often used as a synonym of ‘telehealth’ and is used to denote certain limited remote services that can be extended through telecommunication such as monitoring and diagnosis. Telehealth has many potentials to bridge the gap in rural settings where lack of mobility, lack of proper transportation system, and poor economic conditions can impose limits on communication and hinder access to basic medical care.
A complete “health care system integration” and “health data management” can be executed through telecommunication where the two practitioners living in two different continents can go for a video conference or can do physical therapy with the aid of “digital monitoring instruments,” or can practice robotic surgery through remote access or can forward test reports digitally to consult with a higher specialist. Telehealth can facilitate online conferences between the patient and his doctor, between the practitioner and his supervisor, or between a practitioner and his client. All these services can be offered by ensuring easy access to a reliable broadband connection and infrastructure, and even critical surgeries can be performed.
Telemedicine apps and their utility
The entire picture of the healthcare industry has undergone a massive transformation with the development of telemedicine apps. Telemedicine app development incorporates a wide range of modern-day technologies to extend support and provide medical assistance from a distance through “software and communication tools.” These apps are getting popular in the medical circuit, especially among patients, investors, and medical establishments. Telemedicine startups are quite interesting and lucrative as successful business ideas, and together they can contribute to the growth of the entire healthcare industry.
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How are telemedicine apps helping nurses?
Referring to Maslow’s “hierarchy of needs,” the topmost human priority is health. The primary or the basic services provided by telemedicine are monitoring health problems and conditions from a distance, providing remote medical visits, and increasing “medical service efficiency.” Now let us highlight the most important benefits nurses can seek through telemedicine apps:
- Medical services are easily accessible: Without any access to clinics, telemedicine apps can provide basic healthcare services. In rural areas, there is an acute shortage of healthcare personnel and a variety of treatment facilities. Telemedicine apps, on the contrary, can help senior citizens, people with physical disabilities, and children reach healthcare services very easily.
- Telemedicine experts’ medical care is both time-efficient and convenient: To get access to preliminary or basic medical consultation, patients have to stand in long queues or travel extensively to seek medical support from the government or private hospitals. But with telemedicine apps coming into the picture, scheduling appointments with different specialists is no more an issue. The treatment begins quickly without going through any complications. Hence, to get hold of emergency medical care and avoid traditionally lengthy treatment procedures, telemedicine is the best and most effective solution.
- Maintenance of medical data and reports: The telemedicine apps ensure accessibility and storage of important medical data. The traditional method of medical data storage was poorly managed and was tedious. But with the help of digital devices, the entire process of storing and accessing data has become more convenient and painless. Transmission of treatment prescriptions and maintaining the concerned patient’s medical history has also become easy and unchallenging.
- An enhanced monitoring system and comprehensive management of the patients: With the help of these telemedicine applications, the patients can be monitored under close observation, and personalized treatments can be offered to patients with chronic ailments. Each patient is given importance and an adequate amount of time to address his problems and obtain necessary medical solutions.
- Nurses and their effective time management: Nurses can compartmentalize their workload and diagnose more patients within a specific time period. Hence, they can balance more work and organize appointments systematically without much difficulty.
- Improvement of administrative operation: The entire age-old process of filling up forms and signing a million bonds before crucial surgeries can be avoided now. Telemedicine apps focus more on the treatment than the hectic paperwork because most of the traditional paperwork can be digitized and automated on these apps. Moreover, specialists from various medical fields are available on these apps- from cardiology to psychiatry.
Bottom line
Telehealth, hence, has contributed a lot to the field of healthcare. New-age technologies and modified treatment facilities help these applications reach out to patients from the remotest corners of the world.
Amelia Williams
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- How Telehealth is Changing the Nursing Industry - 04/09/2020