Why is telemedicine necessary and how does it work?

How has the patient experience changed before and after the COVID-19 pandemic? How have standard clinical processes been digitized? And why does everyone benefit from telehealth?

In 1924, Radio News published a front-page illustration of a family communicating with a doctor on television. At the same time, they not only talked, but they also saw each other.

It was just a fantasy then, but already in 1997, the WHO first registered the interpretation of such technology: telemedicine. It was not released immediately, as remote consultations were an unprecedented development. And, as is often the case with innovation, it has been met with skepticism.

This approach was considered unreliable by patients and clinics, so telemedicine services were scarce. But over time, this communication format between patient and doctor became more and more used, and the events of 2020 caused a veritable boom in telemedicine.

Dramatic changes

The pandemic has dramatically digitized patient participation and increased teleworking. Gartner reports that in the first 8 months of 2020, virtual assistance requests increased 300% compared to 2019.

Patients are more likely to prefer online than offline consultations. More than 70% of personal visits were canceled during the pandemic, and 76% of patients said they were more likely to use telemedicine in the future, according to McKinsey.

Your interactions with your doctor have changed dramatically in the last year. Before the pandemic, medical consultations were mostly personal, so the patient's journey looked like this:

Today, these steps have been greatly digitized and put online: there are specific online forms and applications for scheduling a doctor's appointment and collecting data, and medications are shipped via contactless delivery.

The coronavirus pandemic has prompted healthcare and IT service providers to expand their solutions and create new ones. As a result, patients take on new roles in telemedicine services and receive medical advice more quickly and safely.

Telemedicine is also gaining popularity in Ukraine. Online consultations are becoming common practice not only for private clinics in Ukraine, but also for some public clinics. Two telemedicine centers are already operating in our country, one of them was inaugurated at the end of 2020.

In recent years, new applications for remote consultation with a doctor have appeared on the market, as well as online appointment booking portals. In 2020 alone, more than 400,000 Ukrainians downloaded one of these services.

Benefits for patients

Telemedicine enables you to provide quality medical advice faster and safer. You don't have to queue to see a doctor and then spend a lot of time in crowded clinics. Villagers and municipalities, the elderly and disabled people who have difficulties reaching hospital benefit in particular from telehealth.

 

Telemedicine can also help in critical cases. For example, doctors can use a CCTV system to monitor the condition of a patient who goes to the hospital by ambulance and advise paramedics.

Additional remote monitoring can be configured in the patient's room. And when her condition stabilizes, the patient can continue their treatment at home and consult a doctor online.

Benefits for health care providers and payers

Ineffective health practices increase treatment costs. Telemedicine, on the other hand, can help to better configure processes. Telehealth can save up to $ 4.28 billion in health care costs per year, according to the United States Health Insurance Plans (AHIP).