What Is Telemedicine?

Telemedicine was originally created as a way to treat patients who were located in remote places, far away from local health facilities or in areas with shortages of medical professionals. While telemedicine is still used today to address these problems, it is increasingly becoming a tool for convenient medical care. Today’s connected patients want to waste less time in the waiting room at the doctor, and get immediate care for minor but urgent conditions when they need it. The expectation for more convenient care, combined with the unavailability of many overburdened medical professionals, has led to the popularity of telemedicine. Telemedicine has the power not only to breakdown typical geographical barriers to health care access, but to make the entire health care delivery model more convenient to patients. Telemedicine extends access to consultation from specialists and it increases patient engagement.

While the loss of in-person human interaction is often cited ...

by skeptics of telemedicine, 76% of patients said they care more about access to healthcare than having an in- person interaction with their doctors. Also, only 16% of surveyed patients would rather go to the emergency room for minor conditions if they could instead use telemedicine for treatment. With the ongoing shortage of patient slots open with overburdened primary care doctors, these stats say a lot of about patient’s willingness to try out telemedicine. Recent studies show that a majority of patients are interested in using telehealth services, especially once they see how it works and the potential benefits for them. NTT found 74% of surveyed US patients were open to using telemedicine services, and were comfortable communicating with their doctors via technology. 67% said telemedicine at least somewhat increases their satisfaction with medical care.

 

Want more information about telemedicine from Ash Azatian, MD? Call our Lubbock, TX office at (806) 687-7394 to learn more