The inclusion of information technology has positively impacted the healthcare industry worldwide in the last few decades and made the future of telemedicine looks promising. Though the concept of telemedicine was started in 1950, it came in limelight with the ICT revolution of 1990.
Since then, it has proved to be an innovative idea that has transformed the healthcare industry. With the major reason being it possesses the solution to challenges the healthcare industry faces at present.
Be it increasing demand for healthcare professionals, storing a large amount of information, or limited access to healthcare for rural populations, telemedicine efficiently solves them all.
Past and Present of Telemedicine
Telemedicine has proved to be very effective in improving patient outcomes in the last few decades. It has been used to transmit audio and images, storing and forwarding of information, and has been a standard for radiologists since the 1980s.
Since widespread internet access, healthcare professionals started to offer consultations using digital mediums. More than 60% of healthcare professionals had offered online consultations in 2016. By 2017, it had risen to 76% and it kept on increasing since then.
Moreover, reports by the advisory board of medical claims that telemedicine services increased by 624% from 2014-2018. Around 74% of total patients expressed comfort with the idea of consulting a doctor through text, video, or phone calls. By 2023, the market size of telemedicine is expected to be $ 13 billion.
Advantages of Telemedicine
Telemedicine has been used to remove the distance barrier between patients and healthcare professionals. Some of the major benefits of telemedicine are mentioned below:
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Increase access to care
Telemedicine removes the geological barrier between patient and healthcare providers hence saving the traveling time & cost of patients. Telemedicine has come like a blessing for the people living in rural areas where a shortage of clinical services exists.
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Improves quality of care
Telemedicine has improved the quality of healthcare in recent times. According to a study, patients using telemedicine has had:
- 38% fewer hospital visits.
- 31% fewer hospital re-admission
- 63% more likely to spend fewer days in the hospital
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Reduces healthcare cost
One amazing thing about telemedicine is that it enhances healthcare delivery while reducing the cost of healthcare. Eliminating transportation cost, and also keeping patients out of hospitals has helped patients to eliminate the care cost by a big margin. Studies suggest that telemedicine saves around 19% of the cost over inpatient care.
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Improves patient engagement and satisfaction
Telemedicine is known to provide more convenient ways for patients to stay healthy and engage in the healthcare process. The convenience, flexibility, and real-time care of telemedicine is highly admired by the patients.
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Improves provider satisfaction
Being a healthcare provider can be stressful at times. With the inclusion of telemedicine the job satisfaction among professionals has increased as now they can easily meet with the patients through digital communication. Using telemedicine has improved the work-life balance of doctors hence increasing satisfaction.
Disadvantages of Telemedicine
Though the future of telemedicine looks bright, it still possesses some technical and practical problems, some of them are listed below:
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Technical Training and Equipment
Restructuring the responsibilities of IT staff and purchasing equipment takes a good amount of time and money. To build an effective telemedicine program it is essential to have proper training. To achieve better ROI, Physicians and other medical staff need to be trained.
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Reduced Care Continuity
In some cases, where patients use telemedicine apps that help connect them with a random healthcare professional, care continuity suffers. The new specialist may not have access to records of previous visits.
Reduce in care continuity results in care quality, to maintain adequate and accessible patient record sound data solutions must be applied in telemedicine.
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Tricky Policies and Reimbursement rules
Some factors like healthcare laws, reimbursement policies, and privacy rules have struggled to keep up with the pace of the telemedicine industry. While various changes have been made to reimburse telemedicine a few factors still remain as a stumbling block for interested telemedicine providers.
Furthermore, It is better for interested ones to do a little research about the reimbursement policy and healthcare laws of their respective state.
Future of Telemedicine
Though there are still a few challenges that the telemedicine industry faces, efforts are being expended at the international level to overcome them. HIPAA compliance includes protection, procedures, and processes to protect against the data breaches making it sure to protect it from cybercrimes.
People question about if telemedicine will replace the in-person clinical visit? They must understand that telemedicine was never intended to replace the in-person visit but to complement it.
However, in the future, the practices that fail to include telemedicine will suffer and lose customers to their competitors. Telemedicine offers lots of benefits, and the public expects it. Though still there are a few obstacles soon we will be over them. As every other industry technology will disrupt the healthcare industry.