Telemedicine is one of the advances that the new digital era has allowed us and that we have heard about it for a long time, but we believed that it was aimed only at very busy people with little time to go to the doctor. Although it was designed at first to offer a health service in more remote areas with difficult access to health.
However, due to the new situation that we have had to live, many of us have verified its value and the benefits it can bring us. Telemedicine allows us to answer questions, make diagnoses, offer treatment and prescribe medications.
With the presence of Covid-19 threatening our health, telemedicine has made it possible to carry out medical consultations for patients with other pathologies, solving medical problems and reducing the risk of contagion for both the patient and the healthcare professional. In all countries, China, the US, the UK, etc., telemedicine is experiencing a great boom in the wake of the pandemic, as in Spain.
Telemedicine applications
Telemedicine is considered to be medical assistance through electronic devices that have associated software to allow fluid communication between patient and doctor and diagnoses can be made.
Telemedicine can only be considered a call to the doctor, both in audio and video. However, there are applications that help you make the diagnosis more reliable and faster. For example, in dermatology there are dermoscopy applications that help the doctor to specify the condition.
The health applications that we install on the mobile can be a great help to check the oxygen saturation in the blood, the heart rate, the hours of sleep, etc. In addition, with this monitoring of our constants we offer the doctor measurable and real data.
With this same system, after making the diagnosis the doctor can send the prescription to the patient, by digital means, so that they can go to their pharmacy and acquire the necessary treatment.
Of course, if after the consultation the doctor considers that a face-to-face inspection or special diagnostic tests should be carried out, he or she will recommend that you attend the clinic or hospital.
Advantages of telemedicine
Telemedicine is not a future tool, but a present solution that offers the following benefits to patients:
- Healthcare 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
- Access to a medical consultation without having to travel to the hospital or health center.
- Don’t waste time in waiting rooms.
- The video call can be made from anywhere: home, work, second residence, etc.
- It allows a privacy added to the type of query. That is to say, in consultations of the psychological type or infectious diseases it allows a privacy to the patient or that it can avoid contagions.
- In patients with reduced mobility, it favors the control and assistance to consultations or treatment reviews without having to make expensive or complicated trips.
- Consultations with specialist doctors located in different areas or provinces can be made without having to schedule trips exclusively to see them.
