This is a user generated content for MyStory, a YourStory initiative to enable its community to contribute and have their voices heard. The views and writings here reflect that of the author and not of YourStory.
How telehealth services is transforming health care ?
Online health consultation and telehealth services is easier, smarter, and convenient. This is the best option for those who need consultation at regular intervals or for those who are looking for a second opinion.
This is a user generated content for MyStory, a YourStory initiative to enable its community to contribute and have their voices heard. The views and writings here reflect that of the author and not of YourStory.
This is an era of delivering online health care services, driven by high-speed internet connection and high-end devices (PCs and smartphones). Telehealth services or Telemedicine services are the latest game changers in the field of health care. There is hardly any service which is not available on the internet.
From the last few decades, we are buying products and services with a single click of a button, then why keep the health care sector untouched from this convenience? Well, like many other online services, people are using it and realizing its advantages. Why take a half day leave from the work for a 15 -minute consultation with a doctor, when you can do the same by sitting in your office cabin? Why not use that service which can save you from hours of driving? Here, convenience is the key, an online doctor consultation has the same advantages of a physical meeting with a doctor at his/her clinic, but it saves both time and money, minus the inconveniences.
Telehealth Services
Doctors are also finding it more convenient and time-saving. Communicating with patients via phone or a video chat is much easier to handle than acknowledging a long queue in the clinic’s waiting hall. With the help of a digital blood pressure monitoring machine, glucometer and other health care gadgets, doctors can easily review patients’ health via a video chat or on a phone. For many patients, who are terminally ill or patients with physical disabilities, traveling to get an appointment is a big challenge. In some cases getting an appointment itself has risks - a tuberculosis patient can pass the infection to a healthy person in the clinic. An online medical or telemedical or telephonic or videoconference type consultation cuts these risks.
Telemedicine has emerged as the best option for those areas where bringing health care is still a challenge be it someone living on a remote farm or in the middle of a city in a skyscraper or on a battlefield away from a medical center. A doctor in the US can provide his/her consultation to a person living thousands of miles away, say in Nigeria.
The number of medical cases, addressed through real time telemedicine service is increasing rapidly. In 2016, in US itself, nearly 1.2 million people consulted a doctor virtually. Many employers are also offering telemedicine benefits to their employees; they know it saves the time of their employees, which can be utilized in other productive work. This service doesn't cost much and you don’t have to leave your comfort zone, this is just a beginning of a positive transformation—the future of medicine delivered right into your home via the Phone, your smartphone, or a laptop.