At the time when the entire world is fighting the pandemic and the focus is on the COVID 19 patient, the attention should also be given to the other patient who had been visiting hospitals for regular consultation but now are not able to go outside due to the fear of getting affected. most of these patients include elderly who are most vulnerable to the disease so what is the solution one can not blame the hospitals either, as the hospitals are also overwhelmed with COVID patients.
To tackle this problem we have to implement the virtual health care system called telemedicine Telemedicine is the use of electronic communication and software to monitor and treat patients in the absence of in-person visits.
The telemedicine started in mid of 20 century when health advisory had been broadcasted by radio, In 2019 the Telemedicine industry was worth 45 billion dollars, and the is projected to grow to 175 billion dollars in 2026. The spread of the coronavirus had increased the growth of the telemedicine industry
Why Telemedicine is considered a new-age health care system:-
Through telemedicine, we can replace some part of an in-person visit if not all, for instance for the illness like diabetes asthma in which the patient requires regular consultation he doesn’t have to go to the hospitals or clinic to get checked he can consult the doctor over video conferencing app and have face to face interaction, in this way we can keep the vulnerable and the healthy in-home and minimize the exposure .
One of the benefits is low cost it can save us few bucks as we don’t have to physically visit the place, from the doctors' perspective it can lessen the stress on infrastructure, and due to these, the consultation fee is inexpensive.
It is very convenient as we don’t make any special arrangement for the visit, all we need is a steady internet connection . as the patient is being treated from the comfort of his home it helps him in opening up more and shares more insight about his health ultimately helps the doctor in better treatment
In Country like India where most of the population reside in a rural area, without having proper healthcare facilities and infrastructure and lack of awareness Tale health can be a Panacea. Most of the chronic and seasonal can be treated virtually via proper virtual consultation.
What are the challenges we have to face before adopting Tale medicine:-
Tale medicine is not for all disease, at some point we have to visit the hospitals for surgery or diagnosis so we cannot replace the out visit totally.
Due to its convenience, the patient might tend to overuse it for an insignificant reason and increase the burden in the system and block the legit case.
The business model of the doctors not built upon this kind of system for instance from diagnosis to purchase of medicine all systems are in coordination with each other and mutually interdependent so we have to incentivize them if we want to replace the traditional Medicare system.
Not all the people have an internet connection for them this system cannot create much impact so the government needs to work on increasing digital access too.
Tael medicine is not regulated, we need to have a regulatory body that can coordinate with the doctors and help in providing a stranded service for all.
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