Posted by Brad Haymore
You wake up in the morning and feel like you’ve been hit by
a truck. Your body aches, your head is stuffy, and your nose is somehow clogged
and runny at the same time. What do you
do?
Most would call their doctor and schedule an
appointment. A short drive and a short
wait in the waiting room and “the doctor will see you now.” After an examination, the doctor prescribes just
the right medicine to get you back on your feet!
It sounds simple enough, right? Now imagine for a moment that you wake up
very ill, and realize that if you want to see a doctor, you will have to walk for
3 hours….wait for another 3 hours…and then hope that the doctor or nurse can
help you.
Although this is just a hypothetical situation for us, for
some people in third world countries it is a reality. The solution to this
problem may be Telemedicine.
Telemedicine is healthcare and health education that is
provided over a distance with the help of information technology (IT). Possibilities of telemedicine include the
ability to monitor a patients’ health from the comfort of their own home, speaking
with your doctor face-to-face by video chat, taking a picture of a strange rash
on your skin and emailing it to your doctor, or maybe your doctor forwards the picture
to another specialist to get a second opinion.
All of these are examples of the applications of telemedicine.
Telemedicine could be the answer to many healthcare deficiencies
in third world countries. The continent
of Africa carries 24% of the diseases of the world and is only cared for by 3%
of the world’s health care providers.
Telemedicine would help in providing care to those who live in remote
areas, and would allow health care providers to continue their education.
Although telemedicine sounds like a cure all, there are
roadblocks to its success, including the lack of IT infrastructure, cost of
implementation, and political policies that have yet to embrace such
innovations.
Hopefully the future in healthcare will be brighter with the
help of Telemedicine.
Mars,
Maurice. "Telemedicine can lower health care costs in Africa."
(2012): n. page. Web. 10 Mar. 2013.
<http://web.up.ac.za/sitefiles/file/44/1026/2163/8121/Innovate
7/Telemedicine can lower health care costs in Africa.pdf>.
The conditions you described above are very scary. I would hate to find myself in that situation. What I fear more is our new health care system. Wait times will definitely increase. I do think that Telemedicine is a good concept. I think it would be hard to implement in the USA. If our health care stayed the same as it currently is, there is a chance of being able to implement it. However, with the new bill that is currently being written and applied to the USA, it would be nearly impossible.
ReplyDeleteLaura Mayhew
I think it would be useful to look at Telemedicine in a broader view. This is actually a broad term within Health Information Technology that encompasses methods for electronically transmitting medical information to sustain and/or improve a patient’s health status. These methods can include: store-and-forward technology for documents and images; remote monitoring of a patient’s vital signs; secure messaging; e-mail exchange of data, alerts and reminders between physicians and patients; and the ability to observe, diagnose and recommend treatment via video-conference.
ReplyDeleteUyen Pham
This is a very interesting concept and seems like a great help to those who are not able to wait for a physician. However, like you said, the infrastructure definately would need to be assesed and designed for security and patient confidentiality. I know that psycologists already have cyber sessions to help their clients with their problems, but clearly this involves assessing the state of health through talking which is able to perfectly use telemedicine at its highest potential. I am sure as this technology is researched there will be more ways to monitor the patients' physical health such as blood pressure, heart rate, weight, blood sugar, etc. but for now that and the security are the main issues to be faced with this technology.
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