By Lisa Mulcahy, Parade
Imagine waking up with a weird pain in your stomach. It started around your belly button, but then it moved down to your right side—and you’re also feeling pretty nauseated. Do you have food poisoning? A stomach bug? Weird period cramps? You dial up your doctor’s office for a quick video conference … and he tells you it could actually be appendicitis, so you should head to the ER. Turns out he’s right. In a couple hours, you’re recovering from surgery, and back home within a day—a very important diagnosis made so easily and quickly, you can hardly believe it.
That’s what telemedicine is all about. Essentially, telemedicine is virtual healthcare: You can see your doc via video, or consult with him/her via email to discuss symptoms, work toward a diagnosis of a medical problem, or check in quickly when an in-office appointment isn’t available or convenient. But that’s just one aspect of what telemedicine can do for your health. Telemedicine can provide you with information on conditions, allow your healthcare team to monitor a chronic illness, allow you to easily ask questions about your care, and participate with greater proactivity in terms of achieving great health outcomes. In our 2019 Parade/Cleveland Clinic Healthy Now survey, 32% of respondents age 18-34 said they would give telemedicine a try.
“As a family doctor, I feel that telemedicine is an excellent adjunct to traditional healthcare,” says Dr. Jennifer Caudle, DO, associate professor of family medicine at at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey. “It’s a field that’s growing and evolving.” Let’s take a closer look at the advantages of telemedicine—and its pitfalls, too—so you can determine if it’s right for you.
What is telemedicine?
“Telemedicine is the remote delivery of health care services between health care providers and patients using telecommunications systems,” explains Caudle. “This often occurs via telephone, computer, video or other technologies.”
Because telemedicine can be adapted for a widely diverse range of services, using it can be completely personalized, depending upon your health situation: the conditions you have, a specific question or concern you have, or goals you have regarding your care.
Telehealth tools are the formats you can use to gain remote medical services and information. The Mayo Clinic has suggested a number of ways patients can use telehealth tools to maximize your knowledge of your own health status. For instance, if you have a chronic condition like diabetes that means you need to test your blood sugar daily, or your doctor wants you to monitor your blood pressure at home, all you have to do is upload your levels and/or numbers to your phone, send them in to your doctor’s nurse or medical assistant, and quickly receive info on medication adjustments. You can also watch videos about virtually any condition you can think of, to better understand symptoms or a diagnosis you’ve received.
Another great benefit of telemedicine: patient portals. These are readily and widely available via the website of many healthcare organizations and hospitals, and allow you instant access to test results, your medical records and notes on your office visits. You can also use telehealth tools to email your doctor with questions, order medical supplies you need, refill your prescriptions, or receive reminders about upcoming appointments or procedures.
How does telemedicine differ from traditional models of healthcare?
One word: immediacy. Telemedicine eliminates the hassle of scheduling an office visit for a minor issue, or waiting for hours in the emergency room when you really don’t need to be seen at all. For example, nurse call centers, which many health plans offer their members, is a telehealth tool that can eliminate guesswork as to whether you need a tetanus shot after stepping on that nail. Or answer more detailed questions, such as what to do about a nagging pain or a cold you just can’t shake, by asking you about your symptoms.
Then there’s the convenience factor: Telemedicine services are often available 24/7/365. “Telemedicine allows for health care communications to occur at varying times of day—so access can occur outside of typical business hours,” says Caudle.
Your doctor may schedule a virtual evening or weekend visit with you when he or she is booked up during regular office hours, for example. Your doctor can monitor how you’ve been doing in regard to side effects of a new medication, talk through test results with you, outline changes to your treatment plan, or answer questions you have in much more depth than he or she could do in the same amount of time spent on a phone call.
Another unique benefit of telemedicine: It allows your PCP to communicate easily and in granular detail with any specialists you’re being referred to or already see. You can also be video conferenced in to meetings with your health care team if you’re being treated for a chronic or serious condition, something that rarely happens outside of certain hospital settings—yet telemedicine makes it a practical, achievable solution.
Who benefits from telemedicine?
“One of the benefits of telemedicine is that it can increase access to health care for patients,” says Caudle. “Since the health care provider and patient do not need to be in the same location, health care services can be provided to patients in different geographical locations.” This means if you live in a rural area, you may no longer have to make long drives to see your PCP or a specialist in a distant city.
Studies have shown that a wide range of patients can do extremely well when telemedicine is part of their treatment plan. One study found that patients who received virtual obstetric care were highly satisfied with it; another study found that telemedicine can be quite cost-effective for pediatric patients. As for serious illness, a third study found that telemedicine can be very effective for symptom monitoring in cancer patients, leading to positive clinical benefits.
Should telemedicine play a central role in your healthcare?
It’s important to remember, though, that even if telemedicine proves helpful to you in dealing with an ongoing health issue, it should never be seen as an absolute swap for seeing your doctor face to face. “In my opinion, telemedicine is not a substitute for traditional health care,” says Caudle. “This is because continuity of care is important and there are medical conditions that can’t be properly evaluated, diagnosed and treated via telemedicine.”
Your best bet: ask your doctor precisely how he or she thinks it’s appropriate to incorporate telemedicine into your care plan or treatment. And check your insurance before committing to virtual care. “Some insurance companies cover telemedicine, but others don’t,” Caudle points out. Telemedicine can be a great cost-saver, but you need to know how much out-of-pocket expense you may be responsible for, as opposed to what you currently pay for in-person appointments and services.
Your best move: Make telemedicine part of your healthcare—but never lose sight of the fact that your doctor needs to physically see you in order to completely evaluate and examine you. So think of telehealth tools as a compliment to your care, not a be-all, end all. As Caudle sums it up: “When used appropriately, telemedicine can be a great tool that helps not only patients, but doctors as well.”
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