Chaitanya Golikere, Managing Director, Synaegis Healthtech that highlights that one of the major advantages of telemedicine can be for the saving of cost and effort especially for rural patients, as they need not travel long distances for in search of better consultation and treatment. In this type of scenario, telemedicine can provide an optimal solution for not just providing timely and faster access but also reduce financial costs associated with travel. It also reduces the inconvenience and negative impact to family and caregivers and social factors.
The COVID pandemic has dramatically changed how outpatient care is delivered in healthcare practices. To decrease the risk of transmitting the virus to either patients or healthcare workers, telehealth is certainly appropriate in minimising the risk of COVID-19 transmission. In fact, the use of telehealth improves the provision of health services.
Also, industry at large which is slow in technology adoption was pushed to embrace digital technology with the pandemic hitting hard. This led to development & accelerated digital healthcare solutions like online medicine deliveries, health & well -being apps, remote healthcare monitoring & service, massive initiatives like COVID registries, vaccination programmes, telemedicine laid the foundation of National Digital Health Mission.
Telemedicine in India
In India, providing healthcare is challenging, particularly given the large geographical distances and limited resources. One of the major advantages of telemedicine can be for the saving of cost and effort especially for rural patients, as they need not travel long distances for in search of better consultation and treatment. In this type of scenario, telemedicine can provide an optimal solution for not just providing timely and faster access but also reduce financial costs associated with travel. It also reduces the inconvenience and negative impact to family and caregivers and social factors.
As per the data, the total internet users in India as in 2021 were 692 million as per the report by Internet and mobile association of India (IAMAI) based on ICUBE 2021. The urban penetration stands at 69 per cent with 341 million users, while the rural internet penetration is 31 per cent with 351 million users, but rural India is driving the growth with 37 per cent while the urban growth is plateaued. The report further predicts that by 2025 India will have 900 million internet users. The high internet & smartphone penetration aids the scope & reach of telemedicine in India.
Connecting patients and providers
In the future, telemedicine will continue to bridge the gap between people, physicians and health systems. Telehealth will not only help improve the physician shortage and mitigate the uneven distribution of physicians, but may also provide patients with rare diseases alternative avenues to seek highly specialised care.
The advantages of telemedicine moving forward include its cost-effectiveness, ability to extend access to specialty services, reachability and its potential to help mitigate the looming physician shortage. The disadvantages include lack of available technological resources in certain countries, issues with security of patient data and challenges in performing the traditional patient examination.
Further, with telemedicine, there is higher likelihood of maintenance of records and documentation hence minimalises the likelihood of missing out advice from the doctor other healthcare staff. Conversely, the health professionals has an exact document of the advice provided via tele-consultation. Written documentation increases the legal protection of both parties.
Also, telemedicine provides patient’s safety, as well as health workers’ safety especially in situations where there is a risk of contagious infections. There are several new technologies that can be used in telemedicine, which can help patients adhere better to their medication regimens and manage their diseases better.
Key trends
Elderly patients and persons with chronic illnesses can have regular follow-up and monitoring through telemedicine. Monitoring of drugs and dose management can be done through telephone.
If we take a look at the key trends, we can see that there has been an increase in chronic care management recently which shows that telehealth has the potential to not only reduce the cost of a care plan, but also improve patient engagement and adherence to it.
Also, now-a-days, there has also been a greater focus on mental health. In order to continue to treat patients many therapists, counselors and doctors quickly turned to video conferencing to continue to assist their patients. Hence, the development of tele-therapy and tele-psychiatry began and moving forward, this will likely become a widely accepted form of treatment in the healthcare landscape.
Meanwhile, patient demand has been the greatest driving force when it comes to the growth in telehealth, therefore there has been considerable improvement in user experience.
As per the government data, the National Telemedicine Service – eSanjeevani has crossed another milestone by completing 3 million (30 lakh) consultations in March 2022.
The connected future
Over the past several decades, the world have been hit with numerous pandemics, including H1N1, Ebola, SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and currently, COVID-19. In the future, it is likely that more novel pandemics will arise. Prior to the current pandemic, issues with regulation and reimbursement have prevented telemedicine from being fully immersed into the healthcare sector. The development and utilisation of telemedicine services is very crucial as these services allow us to continue to provide high-quality healthcare while maintaining the practice of physical distancing to prevent the spread of these viruses.
Meanwhile, studies have shown that telemedicine appointments can be equal to in-patient visits in a variety of specialties. Also, continued research should be done to improve aspects of the physical examination for telemedicine visits, especially for specialties in which intimate patient contact is an important aspect of the physical exam. If we do this, we will be prepared for the next pandemic and the future of healthcare.
In nutshell, telehealth provides the healthcare industry with so many advantages that although we are starting to see the end of this pandemic, the utilisation of this revolutionary technology will continue far into the future.