Wayne Emerson Gregory Jr. on Telehealth Opportunities and Challenges

 The global pandemic has caused a shift in how the health care system works. High COVID-19 virus transmission rates created a need for social distancing that led to the speedy evolution of telehealth solutions. 

What is Telehealth

Telehealth is the use of digital platforms for communication to access health care services remotely. Communication is done using tablets, computers, or mobile devices that connect to doctors’ networks for their patients. The evolution of health care systems shifts towards technology, offering a reprieve to doctors, nurses, and other first-line workers in the health care industry.

Opportunity

Health experts hail telehealth as one of the main reasons for slow infection rates among individuals due to its remote support. Tracking of other types of diseases has dramatically improved with the data recorded supporting policymakers in place. The result is an achievement of timely interventions and any other future needs predicted and accounted for beforehand. Chronically ill patients also live longer due to medical innovation, even when they need frequent care sessions.

The health care system has also found reprieve as patients who had to get their pulse checks have been sent home permanently unless it’s an emergency for self-care management due to the innovation of telehealth. Health care systems have also shielded health care workers appropriately as they use robots for manual cleaning and disinfecting the hospitals. Minimizing contact of humans to contaminated surfaces. Doctors and care facilities have had an opportunity to shift to digital platforms since the technology gadgets have significantly reduced pricing, making it affordable for most institutes.

Wearable devices have also grown as most patients have taken more interest in their health instead of leaving it to doctors. The adoption of wearing medical devices has increased. As a result, making it is ideal, especially in emergencies. Patients can have it connected to the emergency networks, and in case of an impending detected emergency, emergency services can be alerted. It also eliminates false emergencies that waste the time of both the care providers and patients.

Challenge

The challenge is that remote area networking is still shaky. However, with many more hospitals and clinics pressured to adopt telehealth solutions during the pandemic, it’s only a matter of time before anyone can get medical services from anywhere.

The global pandemic has opened telehealth gates, and adoption is vast, most of which will be permanent even after the pandemic has ended.