Telemedicine comes in various modalities, all of which are conducted remotely using data transfer and telecommunications technology. The most basic form of telemedicine is a telephonic consultation between medical practitioner and patient. However, innovative new technologies now allow more extensive healthcare services to be conducted remotely.
The three primary types of telemedicine offerings are interactive real-time virtual visits, remote monitoring, and store-and-forward healthcare services. All three forms of telehealth make a positive contribution to advancing healthcare and making it more accessible, providing numerous benefits to patients and healthcare providers alike.
1. Real-time Telehealth Visits
Real-time telemedicine visits are patient-doctor consultations that take place remotely in real-time via telephone or a video link. Medical practitioners can ask about a patient’s medical history; gain insight into their symptoms; and conduct a basic visual examination, mental health evaluation, or even an eye test, remotely in real-time.
Real-time telehealth consultations are a two-way interactive process that allow patients who need medical attention to seek it remotely from the convenience, comfort, and safety of their homes. There are various types of specialized telemedicine that fall within the scope of real-time telemedicine, some of which are outlined below:
Telepharmacy
Telemedicine is an effective way of providing patients with pharmaceutical guidance and refill authorizations without having to see a pharmacist in person. Telepharmacy allows pharmacists to monitor patient response to medications remotely and to offer telephonic instruction. It can also enable patients to renew their medical prescriptions telephonically without having to visit a pharmacy.
Telenursing
Telenursing uses telecommunication technology to provide nursing care remotely. Healthcare consultations can be conducted remotely, allowing healthcare providers to diagnose symptoms and monitor acute and chronic health conditions.
Telenursing is growing in popularity because it offers an affordable and accessible alternative to conventional in-person healthcare services, especially for patients living in rural areas that would normally have to travel long distances to visit a healthcare provider. Telenursing can potentially also alleviate the need for patients to visit a hospital by addressing minor health issues off-site, thereby reducing the burden on hospitals and freeing up hospital beds for more serious cases.
Teleneuropsychology
Telemedicine has proven to be effective for conducting telephonic neuropsychological consultations and evaluations with patients who may have cognitive problems via online video teleconferencing applications. A 2014 study found that real-time telehealth visits via video link provide a viable alternative to in-person neuropsychology assessments, provided quality standards were upheld.
Neurological tests are conducted when people experience a noticeable change in their thinking or memory. Neurological tests can help a doctor assess a patient’s concentration and attention span, as well as a patient’s cognition, memory, perception, problem solving and decision-making abilities, motor function, and verbal ability.
Telerehabilitation
Telemedicine can also be used to provide rehabilitation services. Telerehabilitation is a telehealth service in which a medical health practitioner conducts a clinical assessment of a patient, provides the patient with therapy, and monitors the patient’s progress virtually using video conferencing technologies. Examples of telerehabilitation include cardiac rehabilitation, stroke/TBI rehabilitation, and physiotherapy.
2. Remote Monitoring
Remote monitoring is a form of telemedicine that allows healthcare practitioners to use devices to monitor a patient’s health remotely using data transfer technologies. Remote monitoring allows patients who have chronic conditions such as asthma, diabetes, or heart disease to be monitored without disrupting their daily routine. Data pertaining to vital health signals is distributed to doctors and other relevant healthcare practitioners automatically. This serves as an early warning system for doctors, allowing them to quickly detect and address any problems before they become more serious.
3. Store-and-Forward
Store-and-forward telemedicine allows medical information such as vital signals, test results, x-rays, CT scans and other medical images to be transferred from and between patients and medical practitioners, even specialists. Store-and-forward telemedicine is commonly used by radiologists, pathologists, and dermatologists to collect medical information, upload it, and share it with other health care providers located elsewhere for them to look over at a time that is convenient to them.
Different Modalities Can Be Used Concurrently
While there are different types of telemedicine, it’s important to note that they are not mutually exclusive. For example, a patient may participate in an interactive real-time telemedicine visit for an initial medical assessment. Once a diagnosis has been made, the healthcare practitioner may monitor the patient remotely, or suggest they get tests or x-rays taken, which may be forwarded to them by the pathologist or radiologist for further scrutiny.
Doctors can also use video conferencing technology to share patient information with other specialists to discuss a patient’s specific case. The versatility that telemedicine offers helps to streamline communication between medical practitioners, providing an effective avenue of communication between primary caregivers and medical specialists, which ultimately benefits medical practitioners and patients alike.
Telemedicine not only makes affordable healthcare more accessible to all patients, including those living in rural areas where healthcare facilities may be lacking, it also helps medical practitioners collaborate with colleagues more easily, allowing them to provide patients with a more efficient service, which could potentially translate into better health outcomes for patients.