Why is Telemedicine the Future of Healthcare?

The COVID pandemic was highly responsible for making telemedicine the future of healthcare. Since the pandemic was focused on no-contact solutions, it made everyone realize the importance of telemedicine in their everyday lives. As a result, more and more people use telemedicine solutions to deal with their health issues more efficiently, leading to the telemedicine market, valued at $71.97 billion in 2022 and estimated to reach $244.21 billion by 2032.

The reason for such massive telemedicine growth projections is the numerous benefits it provides, such as less exposure to infections, instant follow-ups, easy access to healthcare, reduced costs, electronic health record (EHR), 24/7 virtual and remote healthcare, easy peer-to-peer communication in healthcare, and improved mental health care.

While factors like a rise in the demand for digital solutions are causing the popularity of telemedicine, the primary reasons are the benefits it provides that will determine the future of telemedicine in healthcare.

Advantages of Telemedicine in Healthcare

As mentioned above, telemedicine has numerous benefits for patients, doctors, and healthcare institutions. It is also why global organizations like the World Health Organization (WHO) support the adoption and use of telemedicine services. Therefore, here you can take a closer look at every advantage it provides and understand the impact of telemedicine in healthcare.

Advantages of Telemedicine in Healthcare:

1. Easy Access to Healthcare
2. Instant Medical Assistance
3. IoT and Patient Monitoring
4. Electronic Health Records (EHR)
5. Better Pediatric Care
6. Improved Chronic Care
7. Better Mental Care
8. Reduced Costs

Easy Access to Healthcare

Being able to access medical services with a few clicks and from a mobile app is a convenience appreciated by patients, especially those from rural areas where medical services are not easy to obtain. With a telehealth application, anyone can connect with doctors and other medical professionals remotely to discuss their health issues and get a much-needed and virtually possible medical diagnosis. For example, a person experiencing minor breathing issues, cold, or cough can connect with doctors 24/7, get their guidance, and require prescriptions to deal with their health issues until they can visit a doctor in a clinic if necessary.

Instant Medical Assistance

Some medical conditions do not require immediate healthcare assistance, but some conditions do, and patients cannot risk spending 10, 15, or 30 minutes to travel to a hospital or clinic to get medical assistance for such conditions. This is why telemedicine is important to many patients worldwide. They can quickly get in touch with their doctors and get assistance on how to alleviate their current health condition. Instant virtual healthcare not only saves more lives with 24/7 and instant access to doctors but also reduces the anxiety in patients caused by not being able to get medical assistance in time.

Similarly, telemedicine mobile apps also make it easy for doctors and other medical professionals to connect with their peers and get assistance on the health issues of patients, instant guidance for surgery on a patient in severe condition, or to get assistance on their medical research.

IoT and Patient Monitoring

Every doctor has patients that require frequent or 24/7 monitoring to ensure their health condition does not get severe or untreatable. It is now possible due to the integration of IoT-enabled devices with telemedicine apps and their solutions. A telemedicine application can use the data collection solutions of IoT-enabled devices like heart rate monitors, remote patient monitoring systems, glucose monitors, activity trackers, medical alert systems, trackable inhalers, and ingestible sensors.

The app can collect this data to give patients the information they need to take necessary action and precautions while providing doctors/physicians with the same or more information, so they can guide the patients on the next step required to improve their health.

Electronic Health Records (EHR)

Easy and instant access to medical reports, previous/current prescriptions, medical diagnoses, previous health issues, and treatment is another incredibly helpful benefit of electronic health records, a solution that is made more user-friendly with telemedicine. It is why the state governments, federal governments, and various health insurance companies in the USA support and promote the adoption of electronic health records in healthcare, while institutions like the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) have already adopted and implemented the technology in their systems.

Benefits of EHR through telemedicine include easy and quick access to patient health records, improved medical care, better documentation, data backup and recovery, secure and faster information exchange, faster and secure digital prescriptions, improved privacy for patients, doctors, and medical institutions, and improved peer-to-peer coordination. Due to such advantages, EHR is one of the most prominent telemedicine trends, being adopted by many healthcare institutions every day.

Better Pediatric Care

Taking care of children becomes a lot easier and more convenient with remote monitoring, data collected by IoT-enabled health monitors, and quick access to medical professionals. Parents can also prevent health and take necessary precautions regularly due to telemedicine solutions like instant access to a doctor, EHR, and virtual healthcare services.

Mobile apps are highly popular among millennials and GenZ, and since many of them are becoming parents now, the use of telemedicine for virtual pediatric care will most likely increase significantly in the coming years. It can improve the survival chances of many children by giving doctors one-click access to their healthcare data and real-time conditions.

Improved Chronic Care

Monitoring and management of chronic diseases are easy when physical visits and appointment scheduling is required regularly. Diseases like heart conditions, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, ALS, and asthma require better monitoring and care, which is something telemedicine can provide and improve for patients and doctors. With remote patient monitoring, telemedicine makes it easy for patients to connect with their doctor regarding their health condition and even helps them prevent a severe level of many chronic diseases.

It can help doctors better monitor patients with chronic diseases, give necessary digital prescriptions in seconds, and advise them on precautions they need to take to improve their condition, all of this without requiring a visit to the clinic or hospital.

Better Mental Care

Mental care is a delicate treatment provided to patients whose mental state can state with one missed appointment or one avoided call. Psychiatrists cannot afford to not be there for patients when they need them, but it is not always easy to be physically present whenever required, just as it is not always easy for mental health patients to go to a psychiatrist when required. Telemedicine solves both of these problems with solutions like 24/7 healthcare solutions, secure digital prescriptions, online payments, and virtual appointments.

Whether it is depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a psychiatrist can always be there for their patients with telemedicine. As telemedicine makes mental healthcare easy to access and more convenient, its use in this department will likely increase and make telemedicine the most influential and helpful element of the future of healthcare.

Reduced Costs

It goes without saying that telemedicine significantly reduces the costs of healthcare for patients, doctors, and healthcare institutions. For patients and doctors, it saves the cost of travel to the clinic or hospital and also reduces the cost of documentation for independent doctors.

It saves the cost of utilities, documentation, and data storage by providing digital healthcare and data storage solutions for healthcare institutions. Remote health monitoring reduces costs for both patients and healthcare institutions.

Conclusion

The future of telemedicine in healthcare is clearly bright, as it can significantly improve the efficiency of healthcare solutions and help save more lives. Anyone with a smartphone can quickly get a diagnosis from a professional doctor, any doctor or medical professional can quickly find more patients and look after them virtually, and medical institutions can better manage and monitor their patients due to solutions like digital documentation, secure data storage, and remote monitoring. In short, telemedicine will most certainly play a key role in the future of healthcare.