The use of technology has changed the face of many professions. Healthcare is not an exception. The use of technology has increased manifolds in healthcare, especially in recent years. Telehealthcare services and Telemental Health Online are terms used for online healthcare and online mental healthcare respectively. In the bog below, we have summed up a few ways how telehealth is changing the way we are cured.

Faster Diagnosis, Faster Treatment

Telehealth has made diagnosis and treatment way faster than traditional methods. In most cases, as soon as key symptoms are identified and treated, there are better chances of survival of patients. Especially, in the case of strokes, the sooner the patient receives treatment, the better are the chances of survival. However, many times, the doctor present with the patient on the spot does not have expertise in this. Sometimes, hospitals in remote areas do not have experts who can treat such patients immediately. Here, telehealth proves the savior of life. The doctor present with the patient can take instructions from some experts and treat patients accordingly. Diagnosis and treatment both can be done via videoconferencing. It saves time and money spent on transferring patients to big hospitals which consequently saves the life of the patient.

Rehab at home

Discharging a patient from hospitals is not always the end of the disease. Mostly, it is the beginning of a long care process, especially for patients discharging from the ER or the ICU. Patients suffering or recovering from a stroke or any neurological disease needs more care and attention and periodic checkup with the doctor. However, there are several difficulties that these patients face like traveling to a healthcare facility for therapy and regular checkups.  Telehealthcare services solve this problem effectively. Psychiatric assessments, group therapy sessions, and checkups can be done online under the supervision of experts. For example, a nearby clinic can host group therapy sessions, physicians can monitor patients’ pedometer readings remotely, or patients can participate in online education sessions.

Access to Telemental health online

Access to mental health is very important yet very rare, especially for people living in remote areas who have near to none access to mental health. Traumatic events can leave a person permanently scarred for life if not treated properly. Natural disasters like hurricanes and floods also leave some people in emotional distress. Telemental health online counseling sessions are one way of providing people living in remote areas with mental healthcare. It can prove to be most beneficial for children as they have very little access to mental health. Teleconferencing counseling helps those patients who are fearful of facing therapists face-to-face or do not want to encounter the stigma spread around mental health. Now using telehealthcare, almost everyone can access mental health from their home or office without facing any stigma or feeling any fear.

Encourage a healthy lifestyle

It may sound strange but telehealthcare has changed people’s lifestyles. Patients with chronic diseases like diabetes or hypertension need a healthy lifestyle more than anything. However, managing that without interacting with a physician regularly hardly succeed. Technology in healthcare not only helps patient-doctor interaction easy and convenient, it also helps patients monitor their own habits easily. For example, mobile health technology helps patients keep an eye on their calory count, workouts, medicines, and schedule checkups. Also, as telehealthcare makes access to doctors easy, it becomes easier for doctors to set and change goals for patients according to their improvement. Simple things like a few minutes of video calls with doctors can keep patients’ improvement on track.

Improves Rural healthcare

The biggest impact of telehealthcare services is felt in remote areas of the United States. Areas with small hospitals and lack of access to proper healthcare are the beneficiaries of telehealthcare services. Remote consultation can prevent many life-threatening diseases at the beginner stage by identifying and treating them. Not only in America but healthcare has also changed the face of the medical world in developing countries like India and Africa. In these countries, access to healthcare is scarce even in well-developed towns. Therefore, many people use telehealthcare services for diagnosis and treatment. It saves them time, money and also provides them specialists which otherwise they can not afford.

Conclusion

Technology has changed the traditional face of healthcare. The use of technology in healthcare has made everything, from diagnosis to treatment, faster and better. Patients and doctors both use telehealthcare for their benefit. Telehealthcare provides consultation and in some cases treatment to people living in remote areas. People who can not afford specialists otherwise can now take advice from specialists because of cheap telehealthcare services. Telemental health online has made mental healthcare accessible for people who are fearful of face-to-face counseling or can not travel to the office of therapists. Access to online healthcare not only saves time and money for patients but also gives doctors a wider reach.