Telemedicine refers to virtual consultations with a doctor. It provides you with high-quality medical advice in the comfort of your home. Telemedicine has greatly improved the lives of patients with chronic conditions. It is also a useful tool to get the best medical advice even if you are in a remote location, or a place with sub-par medical care. Telemedicine can save lives across borders. It also makes it easier and more convenient for patients to get their minor ailments checked, before they become major or chronic. Telemedicine helps avoid unnecessary trips to the hospital and the associated loss of time. It can also help avoid the spread of contagious diseases that is bound to happen when many patients gather in a crowded waiting room. Telemedicine puts patients at ease immediately, so they don’t have to google their symptoms and panic.
Telemedicine is the practice of medicine remotely, allowing doctors to care for patients who are in a different location through modern telecommunication technology. Put simply, it covers all the ways in which doctors can care for patients without being in the same room as them. This includes phone consultations, video calls, email communication, remote report reading and remote monitoring of patients through smart biomedical devices (like continuous glucose monitors). Telemedicine has greatly improved the quality of care available to patients managing chronic health conditions. It also benefits patients who need advanced care in rural and remote areas, and patients with limited mobility. Telemedicine appointments are also a good way to make sure patients do not miss follow-up appointments and routine check-ins.
Depending on your healthcare provider, you may get your telemedicine appointment through a hospital’s patient portal or through a phone call to the doctor’s office administrator. Due to privacy concerns, most hospitals which offer telemedicine do so through their proprietary app. The medical information exchanged with your doctor through telemedicine is still strictly confidential. Most hospitals prefer to conduct their tele-consultation through a video chat format, so the doctor and patient can both see and hear each other. For this to work well, both the doctor and the patient will need a secure, stable internet connection and a web camera.
The tele-consultation usually begins with the patient describing their symptoms. The doctor may ask follow-up questions to get the correct information. Depending on the case, the doctor may recommend that the patient visits the hospital or gets additional diagnostic tests done near them. Another tele-consult will be set up to review the results of the diagnostic tests and prescribe treatments.
Telemedicine has revolutionised emergency health care. If a person has met with an accident in a rural or remote location, a tele-consultation could be lifesaving. An experienced doctor can instruct paramedics and medical aid parties at the accident site on how to correctly stabilise the patient for transport. This could help avoid further injury or damage due to incorrect treatment. In situations like this where prompt treatment is of the essence, telemedicine is amazing.
Telemedicine also helps provide patients in remote areas with treatment at the right time. When medical services are not available locally, patients tend to wait till the symptoms become unbearable to visit a hospital. This could lead to unnecessary complications. With telemedicine, they can easily set up an appointment at their convenience. Patients who need a consultation in the middle of the night can also be served through telemedicine. Parents with small babies, who tend to get sick in the middle of the night, can now get an actual consultation and prescription instead of having to rely on general (usually alarmist) information from a google search.
We all lead busy lives, and our health is often a lower priority than work or family obligations. Telemedicine is easier to fit into your packed schedule, compared to conventional doctor’s appointments. If you have to go to the hospital, you would have to factor in your commute, waiting time at the hospital, the actual consultation and then the commute back. This could take hours depending on where you live. Add in the hassle of finding parking and it’s enough to discourage anyone from going to the doctor. Telemedicine, on the other hand, requires you to only take 15 to 30 minutes out of your schedule. You could even schedule it during your lunch break so you don’t miss out on any work time. The convenience of it is unmatched.
It is a reality that not everyone can openly access healthcare, due to the situations they may be in. This is especially true for mental health care. In such cases, telemedicine or tele-therapy can be lifesaving. Adult patients can access high quality health care, without having to divulge details to their family or workplace for their own privacy reasons. Since the consultations done virtually are still covered under doctor-patient confidentiality, the patient can feel safe while they get the help they need. They are protected from the social stigma associated with their health condition.
Telemedicine provides patients with easy access to specialists. It is also a good introductory consultation, to help decide if it is necessary for the patient to travel to come to the hospital in person. It can help the patient save a lot of money, in terms of the associated travel and accommodation costs, and loss of pay from work. This removes a barrier to healthcare for low income or under privileged patients. It is also a quick way for patients to get a second opinion from an expert.
Family medical history and personal medical history give doctors important clues to understand what may be going on with a patient. Telemedicine allows patients to consult with their family doctor even if they are travelling or have moved to a different country. Maintaining this relationship with their family doctor can lead to quicker diagnosis, and lower chances of complications. We also usually trust our family doctor more, because they have been treating us for years. That sense of security can actually help patients heal faster.
Another amazing benefit of telemedicine is the way it addresses contagious diseases. During the Covid-19 pandemic, we understood the challenges of containing contagious diseases at a larger scale. Telemedicine gives us a solution for this. We can avoid long waits at the doctor’s office, where a sick person could potentially infect other patients with weakened immune systems. We can protect doctors and medical staff against contagious diseases as well. The healthier our medical staff, the more effectively they can treat patients. In general, telemedicine gives us the ability to treat patients while minimising the spread of contagious diseases.
It is also easier for doctors to support patients with chronic conditions through telemedicine. Doctors can quickly check in with patients, even on a daily basis if required. Doctors can also access live data from monitoring devices like a continuous glucose monitor to keep track of the patient. It is also easier for doctors to answer the patient’s questions immediately, and put them at ease. Follow-ups of any kind, where the doctor is familiar with the patient’s case, can easily be done through tele-consultation.
Telemedicine also addresses another important factor – hospital anxiety. Many people have a fear or major anxiety of going to the hospital. They try to avoid it as much as possible, going only when their symptoms become an emergency. Telemedicine can help treat these patients without triggering their anxiety. The symptoms can be addressed before they advance into something serious, and can also help slowly ease the patients fear of doctors.
While telemedicine is revolutionizing the medical field, it is not without its limitations. For certain types of emergencies, telemedicine alone is not sufficient. One significant drawback is that doctors cannot physically examine or touch the patient, which can be crucial for diagnosing certain conditions. Doctors mainly rely on visual data and the patient’s own report of their symptoms, which can sometimes be insufficient. In such cases, the doctor will have to ask the patient to visit the hospital in person. Additionally, doctors cannot perform blood or urine tests remotely. They may prescribe a panel of tests to be done at a local hospital and then have a follow-up tele-consultation to interpret the reports and prescribe treatment accordingly. For more serious diseases that involve surgical intervention, the patient will need to visit a hospital. However, their recovery can be supervised through telemedicine.
Telemedicine is still a developing field, and we are still adapting to it. Hospitals will need to build sophisticated IT systems to digitize and track patient reports and files to make the process more seamless.
Experience the convenience and efficiency of telemedicine with Kauvery Hospital. Our branches in Chennai, Hosur, Salem, Tirunelveli, and Trichy are equipped to provide you with high-quality virtual healthcare, ensuring expert medical support is always within your reach, no matter where you are. Schedule your tele-consultation today and take the first step towards hassle-free healthcare.
Kauvery Hospital is globally known for its multidisciplinary services at all its Centers of Excellence, and for its comprehensive, Avant-Grade technology, especially in diagnostics and remedial care in heart diseases, transplantation, vascular and neurosciences medicine. Located in the heart of Trichy (Tennur, Royal Road and Alexandria Road (Cantonment), Chennai (Alwarpet & Vadapalani), Hosur, Salem, Tirunelveli and Bengaluru, the hospital also renders adult and pediatric trauma care.
Chennai Alwarpet – 044 4000 6000 • Chennai Vadapalani – 044 4000 6000 • Trichy – Cantonment – 0431 4077777 • Trichy – Heartcity – 0431 4003500 • Trichy – Tennur – 0431 4022555 • Hosur – 04344 272727 • Salem – 0427 2677777 • Tirunelveli – 0462 4006000 • Bengaluru – 080 6801 6801
