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Should Parents Use Telemedicine To Care For Children?

In an age where digital devices are becoming more and more prevalent, many tasks are becoming simpler for us thanks to our new tech-based companions. While most of these tasks include the non-essentials such as texting, learning languages and checking our bank balance, this new technology includes plenty of important applications as well. We can use our smartphone to keep track of our heart rate, measure how much exercise we’re getting per day, and even check in with our doctor. The latter is called telemedicine, and although it utilizes the most modern devices on the market (smartphones, tablets, etc.), it’s a practice that has been around for decades.

Telemedicine is essentially defined as the utilization of clinical services through telecommunications. For a large number of years, this meant a telephone; but recently, with the light speed development of communications technology, telemedicine has found a whole new place in the world, and people up and down the country are utilizing it for medical purposes. This has a number of advantages. One of the most obvious is that it benefits people who are either physically unable to get to their doctors, or live too far away from one to avail of it consistently. Take for example a handicap parking permit; a patient who requires one of these essential tools for the disabled is often not able to visit a doctor’s office to get one. Telemedicine solves this issue by letting the patient confer with a doctor from the comfort of their home. This is just one concrete example of how telemedicine is making medical practice more accessible to people who need it.

Divan Medical - dentist

Many parents use telemedicine to care for their children with lightening-quick results.

 

When it comes to the health of their children, many parents rightly refuse to compromise. When kids get sick, they react differently than adults, and the younger they are, the harder they find it to express their symptoms in words. This in turn makes parents more likely to seek medical care as soon as possible.  There’s something reassuring about going to see a living, breathing doctor and having them check your child for symptoms. However, parents should definitely consider using telemedicine to care for their children as it comes with a whole host of benefits.

Chief among these benefits is the ability to confer with medical professionals straight away. As mentioned above, parents want a lightning fast response when their children are struck down with sickness. With telemedicine, you don’t even have to leave your house. You can start up your laptop or your tablet, and very soon be in consultation with a medical professional. This is especially applicable for families who don’t live near a doctor’s office; it can save precious time and also provide a baseline peace of mind for parents whose children suffer from a chronic disorder or are prone to sickness.

Divan Medical - telemedicine

If you’re a parent, you could consider using telemedicine to treat your children’s minor ailments.

Going hand in hand with this valuable timesaving feature is the fact that, on a whole, telemedicine costs much less than in-person clinic visits. This is great news for families who might be hard pressed to come up with the doctor’s fee every time their child needs to visit the clinic; it can can dramatically reduce these costs, as well as negating any travel costs associated with doctor’s visits. On the other side of the line, telemedicine also reduces hospital and clinic costs; doctor’s can get through more patients in the day, and the use of online technology serves to reduce admin costs associated with in-person visits. Telemedicine can also reduce non-necessary ER visits but getting symptoms checked out at home first, to ascertain whether an ER trip is required.

Children are often referred to specialists to get to the bottom of their particular health issues, and telemedicine can also help on this front. Traditionally, with any ailment that require specialized treatment, a primary care physician is merely the gatekeeper for a referral. Also, as a patient, you are shackled to the nearest specialist to your home or local area. With telemedicine, you can seek out the best specialist possible for your child, because the limits of proximity are removed. For patients in rural areas, this is especially beneficial, and reduces waiting times if the specialist in question is catering for many separate patients across a large area.

It might seem like a big leap when compared to the tried-and-tested clinic visits, but studies show that 74% of patients prefer easy access to their healthcare, and have come to fully embrace telemedicine. When it comes to children’s health, no risk is worth taking; the practise of telemedicine is one that can revolutionise the way America looks at healthcare, and comes with many benefits for patients and medical professionals alike. Ultimately, telemedicine is only going to become more prevalent as the technology evolves to support it. Jumping on this particular bandwagon as soon as possible will prove advantageous for patients (and parents) up and down the United States!

How Smartphone Apps Revolutionized Telemedicine

Although it sounds like a relatively new phenomenon, telemedicine has been around in some form or another since the invention of the telephone. The focal idea behind the movement, since its inception, has been to provide patients living in rural areas, or patients that are physically incapacitated, with access to top-level healthcare via the medium of telecommunications. While it was implemented successfully in decades previous, telemedicine was regarded as a fringe service, with the main bulk of patients opting to visit their doctor in person. However, the relentless progression of digital technology has made the service more relevant than ever, with telemedicine poised to become a major force in the future of the healthcare industry.

The smartphone is the main herald of this technological advancement, and has cemented itself as a necessity for modern day living. We do most of everything on our phones these days, from hailing a taxi to checking the weather. GPS co-ordination is a perfect example of how dependent we’ve become on having instantaneous access to this progressive technology; can you imagine going to meet a friend at a new bar or coffee shop and not being able to whip out your phone and check where it is? It seems crazy to operate in 2017 without the aid of Google Maps, and as future generations become more and more integrated with digital technology, this reliance will only become more pervasive.

Divan Medical - Smart Watch

Smartphone apps have revolutionized telemedicine to such a degree that we practically carry our doctors around in our pockets…or on our wrists!

Apps have revolutionized many different aspects of our lives, in many beneficial ways. There are apps to take seriously and apps to pass the time; each sector has its big hitters. One of the most positive places they’ve had an effect is the arena of telemedicine, where they are being integrated to the healthcare system in increasingly important ways. No matter where you are in the world, as long as you have a smartphone, you have access to a doctor. Imagine you’re out hiking in the wilds and get bitten by a suspicious looking insect; you don’t know what breed it is, and are worried the bite might be dangerous. You can simply open your smartphone and be chatting with a real doctor in mere minutes. Or imagine you’re snowbound for a few days and a member of your family is developing worrying symptoms; in days past, you’d have to wait until you had access to a physical doctor. These days, you can see one through your smartphone or tablet.

Doctors can even prescribe medication over the internet, through telemedicine apps. Take medical marijuana for instance, a previously controversial treatment which is now gaining legal traction in the U.S., having been legalized in twenty nine states so far; you can simply log on to a site such as MMJ Recs and get outfitted with a medical marijuana identification card, so you can start availing of the medicine for your specific condition. The possibilities of telemedicine are endless, and will only keep growing as technology progresses to accommodate them.

There are a lot of benefits to consider around telemedicine, and even more in the competitive app arena. Firstly, they make healthcare extremely convenient for everyone, no matter where you live. Previously, people who lived in rural areas or who were incapacitated had to travel miles to see their primary care physician, and probably even further to see a local specialist. Telemedicine removes the distance barrier, and ensures everyone has equal access to healthcare. Secondly, it’s reducing health costs across the board, on both sides of the line. Everyone knows the medical industry is an expensive game, but telemedicine is reducing costs for the patients and doctors, by allowing consultations to take less time. This frees up the doctor’s day, and also allows them to charge less to their patients, as well as negate any travel costs.

Divan Medical - Stethoscope

Telemedicine allows those who can’t get to a doctor regularly to have 24/7 medical access.

Another striking benefit comes from the app model itself. There are millions of apps out there that do so many different things, but competition in each sector is fierce. Healthcare apps are no different; thousands of them battle it out on the App Store and Google Play for browsers’ attention and ultimately downloads. This has a leveling effect, introducing competition to a sector which generally isn’t renowned for it, equaling better results at a lower cost for patients. As it stands, telemedicine is on the cusp of becoming a huge revolution in the healthcare industry, a revolution which is sure to happen in the next couple of years. It’s undoubtedly going to be a positive force in people’s lives, producing better results at a fast pace for a lower cost. All in all, apps are a perfect fit for telemedicine, and provide a fertile soil for its future growth. As digital technology is integrated more and more into our daily lives, telemedicine is set to become a regularity for residents all across the US.

5 Reasons Why Telemedicine Could Improve Your Health

As digital technology continues to grow more and more powerful, our society is shifting to better help meet our needs. Despite countless medical advances, the health system has remained largely unchanged in terms of the way it operates; patients have something wrong with them, so they schedule a meeting with a doctor, go and confer with them, and then avail of some kind of treatment. It’s been this way for centuries, even if the methods of treating illnesses have progressed incalculably. However, with the advent of telemedicine, the method that patients use to interact with their doctors has changed for the better.

Telemedicine refers to the practise of clinically consulting with your doctor from your home, using a telecommunications device. The idea is not new, and has essentially been around since the invention of the telephone; however, with the advancement of digital technology and the prevalence of smartphones, tablets and other powerful handheld gadgets, telemedicine is in a position to take a giant leap forward in the healthcare arena. But how it exactly will it benefit everyone? Here’re five reasons why telemedicine could improve your health.

 

1 – It’s Fast

Because telemedicine doesn’t require you to visit a doctor in person, it can be an extremely fast way of detecting signs of critical conditions like a stroke or a heart attack, and can be used to advise patients on whether they need to take a trip to the emergency room or not. Also, it’s fast in another way; you can get referred to specialists quicker, and the general practise of contacting your doctor takes much less time out of your day, leaving you to focus on other elements. Previously, for some people, a trip to the doctor’s office would constitute a large portion of a given day; the speed of telemedicine allows you to get the healthcare you need at a much quicker pace.

 

2 – It Can Get You Access to Better Specialists

Speaking of specialists, telemedicine can help patients, especially patients in remote areas, access the best specialists possible. Traditionally, you were bound to whatever local specialist was available for your specific condition; with telemedicine, your local health care practitioner can recommend the best specialists from all over the country, allowing you to choose form the wealth of experience they offer. There’s no need to be tied down to the local specialists anymore; telemedicine is opening up whole new doors for patients, which can only improve the country’s general health.

 

Doctor's exam

Telemedicine can improve your health simply by guaranteeing that you get to hear from a specialist.

 

3 – It Helps You To Not Put Off That Doctor’s Visit

Let’s face it, doctor’s visits are extremely easy things to put off, but they really shouldn’t be. Deep down, everyone knows that they should listen to their body and immediately go to a doctor when they instinctively know something’s wrong; however, very few of us actually act on that instinct immediately, sometimes with catastrophic results. For some reason, we always find a way to convince ourselves either that we’re fine, or that we’ll book that appointment tomorrow. Telemedicine takes the ‘event’ feeling out of a doctor’s visit, and allows us to incorporate it seamlessly into our routines. It helps us to not put off that nagging feeling we should see a doctor, which is essential to maintaining a healthy disposition.

 

4 – Patients Can Get Access to Treatments From Home

If a patient happens to be disabled, it might be incredibly tough for them to physically reach a doctor’s office, let alone see one on a regular basis to avail of the healthcare they need. Even something as simple as a handicap parking permit might be out of reach for a disabled person, despite it being a valuable tool for them to improve their life with. It’s not just physically disabled patients either; mentally disabled patients might be incapacitated and not capable of benefiting from a variety of treatments.

Through telemedicine, these patients can avail of progressive new therapies like Emotional Support Animals, all from the comfort and convenience of their homes.

 

Divan Medical - Stethoscope

Why visit the doctor when you can get a consultation on your phone?

 

5 – It’s the Way of the Future

As digital technology continues to evolve, telemedicine will continue to evolve with it. 2017 was a big year for the advancement of the healthcare industry, and 2018 looks to be no smaller. Telemedicine has already proven its worth in a variety of ways, and all signs point to it being rolled out all over the country in the coming months and years. From helping patients with chronic conditions manage it themselves to providing patients in rural areas with reliable, responsive healthcare access, telemedicine is a major benefit to patients everywhere. In order to be in the best position to benefit from this progressive leap in technology, start investigating if telemedicine can help you right now, and join the wave of digitally-involved healthcare.

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