What is Telemedicine and How Does It Work?

 In “Telemedicine”, the word ‘tele’ derives from the Greek, which means ‘at a distance’; hence, clearly, telemedicine can be described as the ‘medicine at a distance’. Moreover, it involves the whole range of medical activities which includes diagnosis, treatment, continuing education of healthcare providers as well as consumers, and research activities.

Telemedicine is a healthcare delivery system that provides a platform where the doctor-patient interactions take place through telecommunication medium i.e. via two-way Audio-Visual platforms.

Telemedicine is a tool that enables the patient, who is present in distant or rural areas, to have an access to the specialist physician for their treatment and for the prevention of disease. In addition, doctors can study patient’s Investigation reports like vitals and diagnostics reports and can provide treatment plans despite the geographic separation.

Telemedicine services has proven its importance by addressing a vast range of healthcare challenges and issues like:

Geographic separation: Barrier-like geographical access to healthcare is the substantial reason in developing countries. It is like a burden for patients to cover a large geographic area for their treatment. As the healthcare system is concentrated in an urban area, therefore people staying in the urban area are more aware of the concept of telemedicine than the rural and remote areas. People now have access to specialist doctors by sitting in their hometowns.

Cost Inflation: The Patients do not have to travel miles to the bigger cities for their treatment which helps in saving their travel as well as accommodation cost. Opting for Telemedicine can act as a beneficial option when a conventional referral to a bigger hospital involves much travel and risk to life, whereas a general practitioner can retain the patient in the primary care by teleconsulting from the specialists at an affordable price.

Uneven or Poor Quality of Care: Shortage of competent medical staff can adversely affect the quality of care in the hospital. Lack of resources and infrastructure results in poor quality of care which can be improved by telemedicine services.

Unavailability of physician: Most of the population resides in the underserved areas who are facing difficulty in treatment due to the unavailability of an experienced qualified physician. Through telemedicine, it has become possible that a specialist physician is now available for the care of the rural population.

Despite of these all challenges, there are still few noteworthy instances of the successfully established telemedicine services in India.

Telemedicine at its present:

Telemedicine has influenced almost every aspect of the healthcare delivery system, whereas many success stories are witnessed the role of telemedicine in improving healthcare access& structure, reducing the cost of healthcare, and enhancing the quality of care. . India still stands in a developing stage in terms of telemedicine but it is growing at a brisk.

According to the Telemedicine Market share report, the industry size of Telemedicine was estimated at USD 45 billion in 2019, and 19.3 percent of CAGR is expected from 2020 to 2026.