What is telemedicine and how has it helped the world?

Telemedicine although seems to be a relatively new concept, has not been so new after all. Traditionally, if one were to be sick, they had to consult a doctor at the hospital. But what happened when the entire world went into lockdown? Ease of access and contact was cut short and the patients that had to be attended were urgent and doctors didn’t have the time to be in physical consultation for every single patient. That’s when the world picked up the concept of telemedicine. As the name suggests, it can be defined as mobile or virtual medicinal and consultation services.

During the covid-19 pandemic, it was tough for doctors to consult patients; hence, there was a drastic boost in telemedicinal services. Notice how the word “boost” has been used instead of introduced and that’s because telemedicinal services have been around for a while.

In this article, we would be discussing a brief history of telemedicine as well as how they continue to help, what are its advantages of it and what kind of medicinal specialties can make use of telemedicine.

History of telemedicine

Telemedicine has been used since the time of civil war with telecommunication equipment such as telephones, telegraphs, and radios so that doctors would be able to consult without having to step into the battlegrounds. Such communications were used for consultations as well as ordering medicines, hence, these are to be said as one of the first forms of telemedicine.

By 1879, this was used as a means of reducing the number of patients in the clinic unless the symptoms were either too severe or had to be urgently looked upon. In 1922, Dr. Hugo Gernsback made headlines by seeing patients through a television screen and touching them with robotic arms.

In the modern era, telemedicinal requirements such as personal computers, tablets, and mobile phones are almost accessible to everyone and hence, it has been made great use for patients who are either not able to get up from bed rest such as old and senior citizens, or it can be used for people who just either want recommendations and need light consulting. There are various websites and applications today for consultation depending on various countries, which has been a great evolution in the field of medicinal technology.

Also Read: What is Genomics and how is it helping us?

Benefits of telemedicine

Telemedicine not only benefits patients but also benefits healthcare providers in more than one aspect.

When it comes to healthcare providers, physicians, and skilled nurses can provide better healthcare services through various services such as AI diagnostics, E-medical records, and various medical streaming devices which help healthcare providers to be able to have watched over-sensitive patients at all times to able to provide with the best care as well as change their regimes depending on their current health status.

This helps them watch over the patients as well as attend to in-person patients. By making use of telemedicine, doctors can also attend to more patients without needing to hire more people hence, making more revenue than usual. These are some of the ways how it helps healthcare providers.

When it comes to the patients, the points that have been displayed above show how much better they’ll be able to care for you, and hence, most of the points help them at ease, with telemedicinal services, patients who live alone or who cannot go the pharmacy stores can order medicines and their prescriptions through these services and benefit themselves.

Patients can also consult a doctor anytime they need or even consult a nurse. Through these services, some doctors are present at all times at the other end. Neither would you be exposed to the other contagious diseases that would be present in the hospital room. These are some of the ways it benefits the patient.

Conclusion

It’s impressive to see the numerous fields that the pandemic has opened up for us. Although telemedicinal services can have their disadvantages such as AI inaccuracy there is always a healthcare expert on the other end to be rectifying any such mistake which can help the patients have a sense of relief.

There may be disadvantages to anything and obviously, it wouldn’t be the very same as consulting a doctor in person but it still has its points to prove that it is more than useful in the busy world we live in where time is so prioritized, but something we do tend to miss on is that health should prioritize much more than the time we think we are saving when indeed we are neglecting our health. With this, we wrap up this article and hope that it proved to be educational for you.