Telemedicine: Is It Right For You?
Presently, the field of telemedicine is witnessing change at a breakneck pace, a pace much faster than before. The reason behind this has been attributed to the rapid strides that technology has taken in recent years.
This has led telemedicine providers to be able to provide more affordable services than before, which includes round-the-clock access to medical care, virtual doctor visits, and staffing solutions for the healthcare industry.
Today, with smartphones being virtually in everyone's hands, a wide range of mobile applications have been developed by telemedicine providers, which are used extensively for monitoring the health of patients. Such providers have also developed several smart and portable devices for measuring body vitals of clients at home, some of the most common ones being those of glucose and blood pressure.
Every service has its own set of guidelines that need to be followed. This includes telemedicine as well. Even though telemedicine providers and users are yet to have a standard set of guidelines. The American Medical Association or the AMA has set up guidelines for providing telemedicine services, some of which are as follows:
- Notifying the patient: Telemedicine providers must notify patients in advance regarding the working of the services, its limits, and the communication protocols which need to be maintained.
- Evaluation and Management: It is the responsibility of telemedicine service providers to find and furnish the best services to their patients.
- Billing: Telemedicine providers should ensure that the patients are informed beforehand about the costs incurred.
Many analysts predict that by the year 2022, telemedicine will be a multi-billion dollar industry. In a new poll, more than three-fourths of the respondents were not only interested but expected a promising future for them.
Robotic arms, smartwatches with built-in health trackers, and other such smart devices that can harness the real power of telemedicine services will play a vital role in the near future. Telemedicine is the perfect solution to help people when they are faced with medical problems.
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