Hello everyone and welcome to this week's article in which I will be discussing telehealth and the role it could play in healthcare after COVID-19. According to the NHS, telehealth is defined as 'using technology to enable healthcare professionals to remotely monitor data on certain aspects of a patient's health. This ranges from calling a patient for a consultation to using sensors to remotely monitor their vitals and intervene if necessary. In this article, we will explore various types of telehealth, discuss the impact of COVID-19 and come to a conclusion about the likely uses of telehealth in the future.
One of the most common uses of telehealth is remote consultations, where a healthcare professional can phone the patient or use video-conferencing software to advise on a health issue without meeting the patient in person. This could either be directly between patients and hospitals or through a platform such as NHS 111. While these remote consultations have dramatically increased in frequency since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, they are not a new invention. Indeed, virtual GP platforms are now quite common, with nowgp.com treating around 1 million patients across Europe.
Remote consultations have numerous advantages, perhaps the most important being that patients are more likely to use them. This is because of the economic incentives and convenience. Not only will patients not have to book as much leave from work, but they would also not have to travel to and from the clinic. Furthermore, remote consultations would also help reduce healthcare inequality, as people in remote areas would still have the same access to specialist services.
Nonetheless, remote consultations still have drawbacks, most notably how physicians can't conduct any physical examinations. As such, the use of remote consultations is limited to situations where physical examinations are not required. Further, remote consultations also create many data protection considerations - all data must be transmitted and stored securely.
The remote monitoring of patients vitals are also included as part of telehealth and is very useful in treating two groups of patients. The first are those who can monitor themselves and submit data to their clinicians. For example, those who have severe asthma could submit peak-flow recordings to their clinician through an app and the clinician would be able to monitor all their patients remotely, allowing them to notice warning signs of serious complications and prioritise seeing their patients based on clinical need.
The second group of patients who benefit from remote monitoring are those who are systematically non-compliant, for example, patients who have dementia. Without telehealth, these patients would need to be visited regularly by carers who would check how they were doing and whether they had taken their medicines. Automated monitoring systems would be able to take these measurements remotely and alert carers to the most urgent patients, allowing them to see their most unwell patients first. In addition, artificial intelligence can also be used to analyse the data and detect the warning signs for deteriorating health, thus allowing early intervention to prevent health deteriorating further and reduce hospital admissions. For more information about how artificial intelligence can be used in medicine, click here.
The concerns with the remote monitoring of patients are similar to remote consultations, in that patient data must be transmitted and stored securely. In addition, remote monitors should be as unobtrusive as possible so that a high quality of life for the patient is maintained.
The COVID-19 pandemic has vastly exacerbated the growth of telehealth, due to the increased demand. Social distancing requirements mean that many services are now being offered remotely, to reduce the number of people travelling to the hospital. Telehealth allows many patients, particularly in specialities such as psychiatry, to be treated remotely. Additionally, remote consultations can also be used for triage. This means that doctors can remotely meet patients and decide which patients should come to the hospital to be treated.
Telehealth also helps reduce the impact of PPE shortages. If all patients were seen in person, then PPE equipment would be used at a much faster rate, however, since patients can be seen remotely, the PPE demand is significantly reduced.
Due to the increased demand, telehealth has received heavy investment over the last few months. For example, as part of the $2 trillion committed by the USA to deal with the pandemic, $200 million will be used for developing and purchasing telehealth. These funds, as well as private investment, will support future developments in telehealth, making the technology more affordable, secure, and effective.
In conclusion, telehealth is likely to be an intrinsic part of future medicine. In the aftermath of the COVID-19 epidemic, social distancing measures will still be in place for some time, meaning that clinics will still take place remotely. Moreover, due to heavy investment, telehealth will become much better in the coming months. While this would in no way replace in-person clinics, specialities which could switch to telehealth alternatives may choose to incorporate remote consultations in their practice, due to the benefits outlined earlier in this article. In addition, COVID-19 may also increase the number of remote monitoring solutions for diseases such as heart failure. This technology could significantly reduce hospital admissions and improve patient welfare, so healthcare providers would likely look at incorporating these solutions into their practices in the future.
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