How Telemedicine and Virtual Medicine Support Your Health
“FaceTime” was originally introduced by the late Steve Jobs in 2010. Over the past 12 years, many smartphone users have taken advantage of technology to interact with friends and family and to hold brief meetings for their jobs. With the introduction of video conferencing, individuals and groups in different cities, states or countries can now participate in the same meeting.
As a result, many of us have become more familiar with FaceTime and Skype as ways to see and interact with our families and friends rather than just speaking with them on the phone.
What is Telemedicine or Telehealth?
This technology has spread to the field of medicine with the use of a smartphone, tablet or computer to connect a patient with a doctor for medical advice.
With the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth has now become yet another “new normal.” It offers many providers an opportunity to continue to meet with their patients especially when distance or a medical condition prevented a patient from seeing a provider in person at an office.
In the field of pediatric endocrinology, where there is a significant shortage of board-certified medical providers in the United States, telemedicine virtual care is a path to expand access for populations that need frequent care. While patients in rural areas often lack access to specialists, patients in urban and suburban areas also face long wait times, rising healthcare costs, and other barriers to care. Parents often don’t want to miss work and children and adolescents don’t want to miss school to see their doctor. Physicians are also having a hard time expanding access to care due to staffing shortages.
Many studies have shown that telemedicine can:
Improve the health of populations
Improve the patient experience
Promote physician and staff well-being
As we continue to use telehealth to provide care, we are adapting to how to interact with our patients in a new way. Telehealth improves access issues. It allows us to engage with patients who typically would struggle to get to appointments. Barriers such as transportation problems and health conditions are removed through telemedicine allowing for more frequent and longer interactions between the health care provider and patient.
At the Mehra Clinic, Dr. Mehra is passionate about improving access to care for pediatric endocrinology services. She wants to remove barriers such as lack of specialty care or the need to drive long distances to see a specialist from the equation.
With the COVID -19 pandemic, we saw that telehealth may be utilized to expand services and this is just the beginning of what new care models may look like.
If you have any questions or are ready to get started, we are available to help you. Please contact us to schedule your appointment. We look forward to working with you.
