Population increase is not matched by the proportionate expansion of healthcare services that tend to be concentrated in cities. Remote based patients are often at a disadvantage.
Even if patients are in the same city it may be difficult for them to commute due to age, distance, and physical ailments. It is practically impossible for doctors to visit personally.
Telepresence solution for healthcare overcomes most of these issues. It helps patients and the healthcare industry can grow revenues too while providing excellent care.
Why telepresence and not videoconference?
Telepresence may be used interchangeably with videoconferencing but there are distinct features.
- Telepresence gives the impression of being in the same room—ideal for doctor-doctor or doctor-patient consultations in a secure and safe way.
- Telepresence delivers videos with exceptional clarity of video and audio. There is no jitter or lag or dropped frames. Full HD resolution is necessary for consultations and examination of images. A Telepresence solution provides that level of quality.
- Telepresence may be a custom, proprietary solution such as the one offered by Cisco. Their advanced telepresence system can be used from a computer, tablet or smartphone and permits voice, video, messaging, desktop sharing, and instant messaging. You are assured higher security and privacy—necessary in healthcare but all that comes at a price. You could get a custom telepresence solutions for healthcare developed at a fraction of the cost and transform the way you operate.
Telepresence solutions offer smooth motion, details, accurate color, and eye to eye viewpoint.
Sound synchronizes with images and users can zoom in for a life-sized view for better understanding.
Easy and immediate availability
Telepresence solutions for healthcare will help you reach out immediately and with ease, especially to those who need urgent consultations.
It can be a lifesaver besides helping to save costs and time and effort that go into travel. Patients may put off visiting doctors and exacerbate symptoms ultimately leading to emergency situations.
This can be avoided by using telepresence for routine distance examinations and healthcare. Patients who have undergone surgery or other treatments can access healthcare through telepresence once they are discharged.
It is faster and costs less to deploy telepresence compared to training, recruiting, and deploying doctors, especially to remote areas.
Access to specialists
A patient’s journey may start with a consultation with a general practitioner. After tests, it may be found necessary to call in a specialist. Telepresence makes it easy and cheaper.
The general practitioner may teleconsult with a remotely located specialist and he gets an expert opinion on test reports. The specialist may confer with the patient and dispense suitable advice on steps to follow.
Again, telepresence solutions lead to faster and better outcomes at lower costs. It benefits patients and doctors can handle more patients. In fact, telepresence can also be extended to surgical procedures carried out in one hospital and monitored by an expert or panel of experts in another location.
Ongoing training
Doctors and nurses must undergo mandatory examinations to keep licenses and certifications up to date.
Training takes up time and effort, especially if they must travel. A large hospital can easily put in place telepresence solutions that address not only patient requirements but also serve as a training tool.
Collaborations
In addition, in-house telepresence also means doctors and nurses and other staff can collaborate. Hospitals can be large and a doctor in one wing may have to walk quite a distance to attend to a patient or consult with another doctor or nurse, wasting time and energy.
Another scenario is a chain of hospitals that has specialty divisions spread across its branches. Moving specialists from one branch to another is not practical.
Plus, you may not be able to find well qualified and expert specialists to fill vacancies in all branches. Telepresence helps hospitals make the maximum use of human resources at minimum cost and yet deliver excellent patient experiences.
No geographical boundaries
Healthcare can become global with telepresence healthcare solutions at your command.
Your healthcare business is not constrained by geographic boundaries. For instance, a patient in the Middle East can consult a specialist in New York and get an expert opinion on the course of action.
Medical tourism is common in many parts of the world but follow-up care is tough.
The patient must stay back and incur costs or he must travel. Telepresence follows up care makes it easy for patients to go back home and yet receive follow up consultations.
Patients and family
Some treatments may require patients to be kept in isolation and they will sorely miss the presence of their family members.
Letting them access telepresences bridges the gap and gives comfort to family and moral support to the patient.
A patient may have to undergo treatment while studying in which case telepresence could be of help in letting them attend online classes and complete the course on time.
Telepresence, as stated before, is more expensive and needs a specialist in the development of telepresence solutions to assure flawless operations, accessibility, and ease of use.
You could go for the big names like Cisco and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars or find equally competent solution providers able to satisfy all requirements at a fraction of the cost.
Photos courtesy of gettyimages.com
