The Growing Importance of Telemedicine in Healthcare

His current geographical location directly affects a patient’s access to conventional healthcare services. The people living in urban areas usually find it easier to avail prompt and relevant healthcare services. On the other hand, the rural people often have to travel long distance and incur additional expenses to avail the services of specialists and skilled healthcare providers. That is why; a steady increase is being noted in the number of patients availing healthcare services remotely through mobile devices and apps.

Many analysts believe that the number of patients switching from conventional healthcare services to telemedicine services will grow exponentially over next few years. According to Healthcare Trends Institute, “Telemedicine makes up nearly one-fourth of the health IT market that was valued at $15.6 billion in 2014 and is expected to increase to approximately $20 billion by 2019.” The growing demand for telemedicine services will encourage many clinics and healthcare practitioners to deliver a variety of healthcare services to patients and remotely. At the same time, the telemedicine services will also make it easier for patients to avail a variety of healthcare services promptly regardless of their current location.

Why Telemedicine Will Soon Become an Integral Part of Healthcare Industry?

High Mobile Devices and Internet Penetration

A number of studies have shown compounded annual growth rate of mobile internet users. Likewise, a large percentage of modern users also use mobile apps and access websites on their mobile devices on a regular basis. Hence, more and more patients will soon use their smartphones, tablets or phablets for accessing a variety of services and apps. The high mobile penetration rate will enable patients to avail healthcare services remotely and efficiently on their mobile devices. At the same time, the medical practitioners and providers can take advantage of custom applications and solutions to diagnose patients remotely and provide prompt telemedicine services.

Rapid Advancement in Telemedicine Technologies

The healthcare practitioners and providers can use advanced telemedicine technologies to access the latest electronic health records, medical history, and diagnostic images of patients remotely and instantaneously. They can even use the remote monitoring systems to provide relevant healthcare service to patients by interpreting their latest health data. Hence, the advancement in telemedicine technologies has enabled physicians to make a proper diagnostic and implement the right treatment plan without meeting the patient in person. Likewise, the patients can take advantage of the emerging telemedicine technologies to contact doctors/specialists and avail prompt healthcare services without visiting the clinic frequently.

Enhanced Access to Healthcare Services

As mentioned earlier, the people living in rural areas often find it difficult to avail prompt and relevant healthcare services. Some patients even have to travel long distance and incur additional expenses to avail the services of a specialist. The telemedicine technologies will enable patients to contact specialists and avail prompt healthcare services without putting extra time, effort and money. They can take advantage of the telemedicine programs implemented by various clinics to connect with doctors and specialists regardless of their current location. Also, the telemedicine technologies will enable medical practitioners and providers to offer their services to a higher number of patients on a daily basis.

Improved Health Quality

A patient can easily avoid advanced and expensive treatment through early diagnosis and effective treatment. The telemedicine technologies and devices will enable physicians to diagnose the patients based on their latest health information, and treat them more effectively. These technologies will further make it easier for rural healthcare practitioners to communicate with specialists, and provide more relevant treatment to each patient. The enhanced and smooth communication will enable physicians to treat a higher number of patients remotely, early and effectively. The patients can further take advantage of the telemedicine technologies to avail clinical healthcare services without any delay or obstacles.

Better Patient Engagement

A number of studies have shown how patients can avoid advanced and expensive healthcare services by meeting predefined healthcare goals. The healthcare goals of individual patients vary. But the patient’s healthcare goals can include maintaining appointments and care schedules. The telemedicine technologies will keep the patients, healthcare practitioners and providers in a virtual environment. Hence, the technologies will make it easier for healthcare practitioners and providers to enhance patient engagement. The physicians will involve patients in the treatment process to identify the signs early and provide treatment or care promptly.

Reduced Healthcare Cost

Many analysts believe that telemedicine will bring down the cost of advanced healthcare services. The clinics can take advantage of telemedicine technologies to provide healthcare services to more patients without deploying additional manpower and extending infrastructure. Hence, more and more clinics will implement telemedicine programs to increase revenue by providing a variety of clinical healthcare services to patients living in rural areas. At the same time, the technologies will further help patients to avoid expensive treatments, and avail prompt healthcare services without incurring travel expenses.

Making Healthcare Practitioners and Providers Productive

Nowadays, clinics and hospitals explore ways to provide healthcare services to more patients by overcoming constraints related to manpower, equipments, and infrastructure. The telemedicine technologies will enable them to offer healthcare services to a higher number of patients remotely by making the healthcare practitioners and providers more productive. For instance, a clinic can implement a telemedicine program to enable the doctors and specialists to treat patients from various regions. Likewise, they can use the telemedicine solutions to make the nurses and healthcare providers to serve more patients efficiently on a daily basis.

However, the growth and adoption rate of telemedicine service will be directly impacted by a number of factors like privacy protection, healthcare laws, and reimbursement policies. The clinics and healthcare providers have to address these issues successfully to deliver telemedicine services smoothly to a large number of patients. They also need to build a robust infrastructure and use custom applications to accelerate delivery of telemedicine services.