Telehealth is a delivery model where health care is provided to patients through video or phone calls, messaging, or emails. It helps in the operational success of efficiently reaching out to patients in the comfort of their homes. Remote locations without a healthcare facility can be serviced through telehealth technology as the doctors can treat a patient without an in-person appointment.
Telehealth is gaining popularity
Currently, with video calls becoming a norm for communication, most sessions are interactive and feel as close to an in-person consultation. This helps in better assessment as the doctor can check for topical changes for bruises or skin abrasions in patients without relying only on their description.
With encrypted data storage options, the patient information is safe and their privacy is protected. Numerous gen Z patients are embracing telehealth options as they can save time for commuting to a clinic and can show up for an appointment without taking an additional leave of absence from work.
Telehealth modalities
In the current structure, telehealth modalities can be broadly divided into three categories. They can be used independently or in combination depending on the requirements of a treatment plan. The three categories of telehealth modalities are
- Synchronous
In synchronous mode, real-time consultation, reviews, and follow-ups between doctor and patient are established through different modes of communication. Video calls are a popular mode of consultation for virtual visits where the patient’s health conditions are discussed in detail. Since there is no physical examination, doctors need to deep dive and extract the appropriate information.
- Asynchronous
Commonly known as the store and forward concept in telehealth, it is a mode for patient-related information to be collected and forwarded to the clinic or hospital. There are many disciplines in medicine like orthopedics and dermatology where the diagnostic images and pictures related to a physical condition like the texture of skin during a hives burst are forwarded to the clinic’s email id or stored in the data collection platform of the clinic.
After initial review, if required the clinic can establish a connection with the patient or advise the treatment through email, or a message. This format is used in conditions that are not critical and symptoms are not extreme
- Remote monitoring
Consistent review of a patient’s physiological conditions, especially when they have been stabilized after hospital admission and discharged, is required to assess their conditions. It helps in avoiding readmission for the same reason. With wearable remote patient monitoring devices, it is possible to consistently monitor physiological conditions like blood pressure, blood oxygen, and glucose levels.
How to prepare a telehealth program?
The success of a telehealth program will largely depend on the technology. Unless the interfaces are easy to use, the platform issues alerts related to medical emergencies through RPM data relays is safe for data protection, and scalable to meet the operational requirement of a healthcare facility, investing in a telehealth platform will be a difficult decision. It is imperative that a hospital or clinic has to talk to vendors and take demonstrations to satisfy if the future telehealth platform can perform the following tasks:
- Integration
Check if the telehealth platform can integrate with the current EHR and access the patient data that is already on the files. The platform should specifically be able to handle communication through all channels like video, phone, email, etc
- Security
Telehealth platforms have to conform to local laws. Appropriate levels of data encryption for safe storage of patient records and information.
- Ease of application
The patient and the staff should find the application easy to use. If the layers of complication are reduced for patients then there will be more willing participants in a telehealth program. For instance, if the application requires extra downloading or apps that need to sign in through only a Google ID and other options like phone numbers are not given, then patients will be restricted from effective use of the platform.
Conclusion:
Technical upgradation in telehealth is a forward step for hospitals that will aid in bringing down the costs and bridging the gaps in healthcare. This is possible when telehealth platforms provide clear audio-visuals. It should also be an application that can work in low bandwidth networks so that patients with poor internet connection don’t find that as a barrier.