Telemedicine services have been becoming ubiquitous in different corners of the world and they have been contributing to change the public healthcare system across the world. Due to the rapid advancement in the communication sector, the affordability of different online healthcare services has increased significantly. In the last decade, it had become possible for patients to seek medical advice online without visiting a physician from a remote place.With the advent of 5G, even remote surgery is in the realms of possibility. There are certain challenges( such as legal framework) in this sector that needs to be overcome in order to ensure robust growth of telemedicine.
Convenient Healthcare Services
One of the ways in which the telemedicine industry has contributed to improving the public healthcare system in the world is by providing convenient healthcare services to people. All those people who don’t have easy access to healthcare facilities can simply opt for telemedicine services in order to find treatment for their ailments.There are popular companies such as Healthtap, Doctorspring and American Well, which are trying different business models to make a dent in healthcare delivery model.
More Focused Interaction Between Patients and Doctors
Due to the availability of healthcare apps, patients can answer the follow up medical questions asked by doctors to provide better follow up care post surgery. This way, physicians get to know clear information about the disease of a person and it helps to provide them with excellent treatment. The use of Artificial Intelligence also helps patients and doctors to interact in a more focused way. All those busy people who can’t find enough time to pay attention to their health can simply consult their doctors online and get detailed information about their ailments.
Awareness about Outbreak of Diseases
In addition to this, it has also found that the use of such online healthcare services is also effective in spreading awareness about the outbreak of diseases. Physicians have also been making use of such apps in finding a better solution in the case of any doubt. Through telemedicine services, they can consult an expert on a particular subject in order to come to a conclusion regarding a given subject. Health people can simply get important information about the outbreak of new diseases in every season and they get sufficient time to take necessary measures in order to protect themselves.
Affordable Healthcare Services
In the US alone, $2.9 billion of money is spent on healthcare services every year including all those expenditures that are avoidable. With the help of telemedicine services, it is simply possible to prevent such extra costs by avoiding unnecessary doctor visits and reducing problems such as medical non-adherence. Old age people who don’t find anyone to take them to a physician can take the benefit of telehealthcare services to a great extent.
There have been empirical evidence of telemedicine leading to better outcomes by improving access to care and providing timely interventions. Apart from direct savings of cost, it may lead to millions of man-hours savings for employers. If more B2B telemedicine companies are able to demonstrate this value proposition to employers, they can expect this model to drive next generation of growth in e-health industry.
Better Work Life Balance for Doctors
Doctor burnout rate due to work related stress is more than 40% across medical specialities and it is increasing day by day. Telemedicine provides a huge opportunity to seek a better work life balance for many physicians who were otherwise out of work force. With 5G communications, this trend may bound to grow in the future.
These are some of the ways in which telemedicine services have been providing a better public healthcare system to the world by making available all the necessary medical services on electronic devices. Have you tried telemedicine yet? Let us know your opinion in comments section.