With the outbreak of the novel coronavirus across the world, there have been multitudes of changes in the way the healthcare industry was treating patients.
With the rapid transmission rate, it was difficult to examine and unveil the unknown layers of symptoms being transmitted. The local authorities in precaution imposed several traveling restrictions to curb the aftereffect. Hence, the healthcare industry was witnessing a massive change in the manner of treating COVID and non-COVID patients globally.
The pandemic has brought the innovators to produce and come up with a technological norm or an MDM for healthcare and introduce us to a new way of triage, evaluate and care for patients with nil or minimal physical encounters.
Is Telehealth the next big count in a pandemic?
It could take years for the pandemic to recede but its impact has already started to shape the healthcare domain technologically. The adoption of Telehealth has come to the rescue wherein this technology is catering to provide essential, urgent medical assistance and care for common ailments like cold, pregnancy consultation, headache, diets, etc., without exposing the COVID-19 patients. With the adoption of MDM technology, the seeking of medical assistance remotely with specialized doctors across the globe has brought in epidemiological research data for the innovators to utilize and improve the latter innovation if such contingent disruption arises.
This technology has widespread its outreach post variations of lockdown restrictions across the globe. The entire world came to a halt and everyone was trapped at home no matter what their status or what differentiation of non-essential workers they were. Telehealth came as a welcoming promise for everyone to seek urgent medical assistance no matter what diagnosis they were related to. With urgent medical assistance in mental health appointments, treatment of probable symptoms of COVID-19, other chronic medical conditions like diabetes, arthritis, or even weight management, the mitigation of dire consequences has lessened the additional numbers in the emergency rooms.
Faster virtual clinical service for Non-COVID patients
As per stats, major Telehealth healthcare MDM providers have seen a surge from 50 to 175 patients since the pandemic outbreak has been announced worldwide. The healthcare industry is now starting to believe that the adaptation of Telehealth has seen a rapid evolution since the previous six months and is the next big bet to watch upon. With the fear of contracting the Covid-19, the non-COVID patients are reporting their satisfaction in being treated through telehealth as they are able to contribute to no-shows and minimal cancellation fees for appointments saving them a fortune for essential healthcare services.
With almost 75% positive responses from Telehealth patients, this is the new way of providing satisfaction for treatment and attaining unexpected experiences. With several restrictions imposed, the healthcare domain was bound to explore a desirable medical model to treat the non-COVID patients with utmost precautions. The adoption of self-care and self-management phenomena with handy technological tools such as pulse oximeters and digital thermometers, the telehealth consultations proved to be a reliable addition in focusing and improving current chronic health status remotely.
The transparent technological medical superiority for virtual diagnosis
With the increasing surges of COVID cases, Telehealth continued to provision the medical attention virtually and also safe-guarded the health of frontline workers by reducing the chance of physical contact. Telehealth has brought in the ability for the front-line health care workers to attend various cases virtually and prescribe necessary medication as per the symptoms. The virtual ability has also brought in an option for any specialization of doctors across the world to connect to their patients and give them round-the-clock care anytime and anywhere. Telehealth has also witnessed a huge rate of acceptance since it has provided healthcare treatment in a transparent manner. Any family member can communicate with the doctor virtually and seek the most reliable solution related to patient care even in the most horrendous sight. Digital technologies have also played a major role in proliferating the self-monitoring of individual health such as wearable devices and smartphones. These devices are monitoring the various aspects of patient health reading that the clinicians can utilize to better understand the symptoms and take necessary actions by analysing the bar of emergency circumstances.
Is virtual medical advancement the superior order to eliminate physical contact?
The patients who were utilizing the technology of Telehealth to get their medical diagnosis attended for any symptoms they had, also relayed on follow-up appointments at ease at the disposal of the current medication period.
For ailments related to cough, cold, physiotherapy, pregnancy, etc., the patients are able to place an order for medication by downloading an internet-based drug prescription updated by the respective doctors. Telehealth has shown tremendous positivity and benefits in treating non-COVID patients without exposing them to COVID patients. With the assistance of seeking mental and behavioural health assistance through mobile phones, mobile device management has become essential and efficient in the healthcare industry.
The challenges for physical examination
It is also evident that in order to envision a tech-enabled healthcare facility, the hurdle of medical conditions restricted for treatment without physical examination is to be also considered. There could be a provision wherein patient health is deteriorating and without a physical examination or lab tests, the decision for treatment could be an essence of limitation virtually for diagnosis. There could also be a provision wherein the patient has expressed the need for physical examination related to sensitive and personal diagnosis which they don’t want to bind their family in until they are aware of the expected outcome like pregnancy, physiotherapy, etc. The prime disadvantage of Telehealth is that not everyone can have access to it. If we consider the patients residing in the rural areas of the world, they don’t have access to technological developments and devices like phones, the internet, or even desktop. This is limiting virtual healthcare to reach across the globe with improving factors to be taken into consideration.
Closing lines…
If we really understand the role of Telehealth and its impact on millions of patients across the globe, we can envision better mobile device management in the healthcare technological enabled industry someday but we will never be able to replace the process of clinical diagnosis that requires physical attention or intervention through virtual call. But, it is a bar to work upon and innovators are working to exploit the present technologies and bring a change in the new healthcare system and technology. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has posed an opportunity to embrace the usage of Telehealth for non-COVID patients and it might continue to be one of the advanced solutions that can come with more improved solutions in a similar domain across the globe.
Author Bio
Renuka Shahane is a Sr. Content Writer at Scalefusion, an industry-leading MDM solution that helps organizations across the globe to manage their mobile endpoints. She’s an engineering graduate, an Apple junkie, and an avid reader who has 5+ years of experience in content creation, content strategy, and PR for technology and web-based startups.
