Virtual Health and Telehealth during COVID-19

Virtual Health I With the patients under lockdown and doctors at the risk of infection, telemedicine has emerged as a life-saver for this COVID-19 crisis. The scale and pace of it being adopted in the medical services are phenomenal and never been seen before.

With CMS announcing its 80 services to be provided through telemedicine. This method ensures that patients stay at home while getting the medical attention they need. Virtual care is a vital part of the telemedicine is changing the way the medical service work around the world. 

The virtual care and telehealth are used commonly these days. Virtual care is basically the virtual visits of the patients using communication technology with their clinicians, live with virtually any location. This could be done from the audio or a video call to interact with an offsite medical specialist. It allows specialists to monitor health from remote locations.

Telehealth, on the other hand, incorporates a wider range of technology-oriented remote medical services provided to patients which may include giving medical advice, walking them through at-home exercises, or recommending them to a local provider or facility. It is normally used to treat common illnesses, manage chronic conditions, or provide specialist services. In a nutshell, virtual Healthcare is a component of telehealth for providing medical service at a distance. 

Several types of research done to observe it’s effects have shown the satisfaction of patients to be high after receiving Virtual healthcare services.

Benefits of Telehealth and Virtual Health

There are several benefits to adopting Telehealth and Virtual Health in medical services. Firstly, doctors can cater to more patients than they use to treat upon physical inspection.

Secondly, the cost of fuel and time is also saved by having a remote virtual meeting with the doctor. Upon a few benefits, several professionals are also concerned that it would not be able to replace the physical medical inspection and interaction with the doctor. It also raises the question of the reduction in quality as the telehealth procedures are cheap and can compromise the quality of Medical Services.
As the COVID-19 Crisis sets in, several governments are adopting the Telehealth approach.

In Italy, this creates a lot of pressure on IT departments to keep up as many of them lack the technical hardware and resources. Likewise in India, and Africa, Telehealth is taking place rapidly along with the private as well as public sector inclined towards its use during COVID-19 lockdown circumstances. 

Google has also made efforts to provide people with information on the maps and search options regarding the Telehealth clinics, centers, or other Telehealth options around them. The local health care workers, doctors, and mental health workers are also encouraged to submit a profile that would show up on Search and Maps to make it easier for people to discover virtual health care options around them.

The whole COVID-19 pandemic is to give birth to a new paradigm in patient healthcare model and is likely to change the way healthcare systems work incorporating more technological assistance in medical care services.