We solve so many tasks for ourselves, but also for others, one click away. Why would health not have a chance, but also a priority to a quick form of approach, where health allows, knowing the multiple and undeniable benefits of Telemedicine?
Telemedicine convinces by itself
She also tells us about saved cases, impeccable anamnesis and benefits not only in pandemic times. If she is now “in the spotlight”, it is for undeniable usefulness, not just as a “resuscitation manoeuvre” of a deficient diagnostic system during the acute global crisis.
Incredibly, compared to the past, you can drink your coffee at the top of the mountain while you have access to a medical allergist when a bee has stung you, and you have an allergic background. Not to mention a tick bite, or if you were haunted by insomnia when the baby got a fever!
It sometimes seems surreal, but here we are in 2020 – when you have slight indigestion or a jellyfish has bitten you on a beach in Greece you can identify the intruder and find out how an anti-inflammatory cream can help you quickly until you get to a medical centre. On the contrary, you find out how it can harm you and only you enormously.
They say that there are no diseases, just sick people, and Telemedicine by way of practising it, becomes the custom version desired for so long.
Sometimes Telemedicine becomes even more important through what you should not do in borderline situations. Don’t put vinegar over a burn, don’t use cucumbers if you have a sunburn and you already have a stage 2 injury (the doctor can do the evaluation). Don’t give the baby antibiotics without medical recommendation.
Please don’t use anything you have at hand for aerosols without a medical recommendation or use them. What we want to tell you is that from medical consultation, diagnosis and to a resolution of the cause, not only of symptoms, all can be possible by Telemedicine. It is important to differentiate what can be solved and what can’t and here even more so your doctor in a call can do so.
Did you get dehydrated after oversitting in the sun? A doctor can guide you to fix the situation by analyzing the symptoms of dehydration down to the smallest detail.
What are the benefits of Telemedicine? How can it help you?
If we talk about the concrete benefits of Telemedicine by talking to patients, but also with our doctors, we learn the following:
With Telemedicine everything is safe and fast:
- It is easy and quick to have access to a doctor’s advice: online, directly from your account, no calls in Call Center or forms to fill out.
We:
- no longer diagnose ourselves on the Internet: during the time we spend searching, we have the opportunity to talk to a doctor, who will give us a correct diagnosis.
- save time: we no longer go to clinics – so we no longer waste time on the road, we do not wait in reception or the doctor’s office; efficiency of time for the benefit of the patient, but also of the doctor.
- have diversity: many medical specialities available online, which are regularly updated according to identified needs.
- can access and make an appointment from any device, anywhere, anytime: we can do this even from the job without taking days off, from home, from another country.
- do not have contact with other patients, an essential benefit in the context of the pandemic.
- shorten the road to diagnosis when we have conditions where travel to the doctor’s office is not necessary for the first phase.
- also, keep in touch with the doctor after consultation via chat/messages, and he has access to our medical history.
- Sometimes have a lower cost (there are health conditions that can be diagnosed and treated quickly without complex analyses) etc.
- Have a planet that breathes better, because if we don’t move, neither do the nurses, doctors or clinic staff who come there for us.
Telemedicine can make your life easier
- initial evaluation by Telemedicine to recommend a diagnostic plan limits the need for interaction;
- patients initially evaluated in medical offices can transmit the results of analyses and investigations via Telemedicine, and this way can receive therapeutic solutions;
- telemedicine allows monitoring the response to treatment, as well as its replacement when necessary;
- patients located far away from medical clinics may have solutions at hand, making sure that they have been evaluated by specialist doctors;
- Second opinion consultations are another benefit to consider.
What are the most common questions about Telemedicine?
We leave answers to questions you’ve asked yourself sometimes. They are addressed directly to you from Urology, Dermatology, from people like you, but who heal, tell, answer honestly, diagnose and follow your sufferings carefully with the professionalism with which they have accustomed you in the office. If you need it, they’re here.
Online urological consultations? Yes, it is possible!
Urologist Lisa Finkelstein – American Association of Clinical Urologists (AACU), a leader in what Telemedicine means in Urology, said in 2019 when Wyoming faced one of the hardest winters “Let it Snow and Tele-On!”. It highlights one of the essential benefits of online consultations in urology: the therapeutic approach of patients in isolated areas, but also how overcoming barriers in Telemedicine makes more and more patients who do not reach a correct diagnosis find the solution only through a zoom call.
Dr Bogdan Guşănu, Urology primary physician:
Why should you trust me, that I will consult you with the professionalism and rigour with which I do it in the clinic?
Doctors are professionals who, by the nature of the chosen profession, must always be up to date with the latest scientific advance developments. In the digital age, emerging media – such as video consultation – is another method of examining patients. As a result, a remote medical consult will have the same attributes as one at the office, in terms of the information provided to the patient.
The professionalism of a doctor does not depend on how he communicates the medical advice to patients. It is about the fundamental training of the doctor.
Why is it better for you to schedule online, instead of coming to the clinic?
It is preferable to schedule a video consultation. Especially should happen when that visit is not the first, so you are a known case for that doctor. He will only update your previously prescribed treatment for a chronic issue.
He does this also when “your medical condition is not an emergency.
This way, you will help with the usual clutter in a clinic. You will receive exactly the same recommendations as in the clinic.”
Why are we doing this now more than we used to?
In the current context of the need to maintain social distance, the agglomeration in the clinic’s space can become demanding and time-consuming. It becomes possibly risky from the perspective of positive and asymptomatic COVID-19 patients with whom you can come into contact being in the same room, i.e. waiting at reception. The safety of the patient, as well as the medical and non-medical staff of the clinic, must come first.
Why is Telemedicine useful for the doctor?
In addition to the fast exchange and accelerated dissemination of medical news to practitioners, Telemedicine makes direct contact and access to information and appropriate treatment easier for them and patients, without the disadvantages of physical displacement.
To the dermatologist via videoconference? The answer is yes again!
It’s summer! From sun protection as a form of prevention in multiple skin conditions to serious conditions that need to be managed constantly, Dermatology has precise approaches. How does dermatology cope online?
The largest number of published teledermatology studies were in the United States, followed by the United Kingdom, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy and Austria. Most dermatological indications for telemedical consultations included different types of skin diseases, followed by skin cancer and wounds. The research questions focused mainly on consistency, efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Teledermatology has proven to be an extremely reliable consultation tool in all studies. Telemedicine has been used in the daily dermatological routine for the purposes of managing chronic patients’ conditions, to consult patients in remote locations or for medical care in nursing homes (wounds and eschares).
Dr. Lavinia Oros, primary physician Dermatology Medicover:
The doctor is the same, either in the office, or at home, and the rigour, compassion and responsibility do not “dress” with the robe, but are part of the doctor – human being.
Nowadays, under the threat of a global pandemic, it is our responsibility to limit, as far as possible, congestion in confined spaces, because it saves time and is an opportunity we all should use. The current context has forced us to use Telemedicine. Still, the advantages of remote consultation are generally right in general, regardless of context.
COVID has shown us and shows us how fragile we are in the face of a viral threat; in such a medically tried time, it is our duty to limit the spread of the virus by restricting interactions to strictly necessary ones. Telemedicine is beneficial as a first medical intervention – sometimes it can offer solutions that solve suffering, sometimes by guiding to specific medical investigations or consultations.
Telemedicine is also great for the doctor for the same reason that it is suitable for the patient – safety, comfort, time saved.
The responsibility felt is even higher than the usual one (“Did the patient describe my complete suffering?”).
We always emphasize in the dialogue with our patients the quality of the call and the images that the patient can send to the doctor. It is, however, an excellent first assessment of a medical situation, which can “filter” medical problems, so that only patients who need specialist advice or help arrive at the clinic.
For the success of online consultation, the doctor and the patient team up, their connection leads to the relief of anamnesis in the case of a condition that needs to be managed in the long term. A pleasant voice can calm the child, but also the child inside you. The fear from the noisy or unfriendly waiting room disappears through Telemedicine. You leave you an invitation!
We gain health because Telemedicine helps us first of all to be preventive, to stop postponing the request for informed advice, to talk with the doctor without obstacles related to time, transport and holidays.
