Healthcare is a field that is constantly improving and changing due to new demands, technology, and opportunities to address the general population’s health effectively. During the last decade, technology has become a revolutionary tool that influenced multiple fields, and medicine is one of them. One of the implementations that happened due to new technological advancements in telemedicine. Telemedicine refers to health services that are distributed through electronic technologies. Some include diagnostics, monitoring patients, medical advice, and other health-related procedures. However, telemedicine is not necessarily the practice where communication occurs between a physician and a patient. Medical professionals use it to share data and information, consult each other, and improve their knowledge by learning new information remotely.
Telemedicine became even more significant during the COVID-19 outbreak. According to researchers, this medical field has mitigated some of the effects of the pandemic by minimizing virus transmission (Calton et al., 2020). Patients could contact their doctors without going to the hospital, which positively affected the rate of infected individuals. Moreover, physicians could assist many people without being at risk for contamination. Since multiple medical professionals could not work due to testing positive, telemedicine was an excellent tool to protect physicians.
As technology becomes more significant in healthcare, telemedicine will continue improving. Researchers point out that more than 15% of physicians encounter this concept in their practices (Dorsey & Topol, 2020). The number will rise even higher since experts realize not all health issues require in-person visits to the doctor. Telemedicine is not only safe but also a comfortable alternative that both patients and doctors prefer in many cases.
References
Calton, B., Abedini, N., & Fratkin, M. (2020). Telemedicine in the time of coronavirus. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 60(1).
Dorsey, E. R., & Topol, E. J. (2020). Telemedicine 2020 and the next decade.The Lancet, 395(10227), 859.