Don’t be surprised if the next time you want to see your doctor, he refers you to your computer, instead.
Of course, if you’re really sick, that won’t happen. But times, they are a changin’ and physicians are embracing a broad spectrum of Web-based software solutions that is bringing healthcare services into the home in a bid to woo the aging population and its increasingly hectic lifestyles, according to a story by Shelly K. Schwartz at CNBC.com. And the market for these kinds of services? Schwartz reports that Datamonitor, the London-based market research firm, shows the industry will grow to $8 billion by next year.
Schwartz reports that two-thirds of healthcare providers are now using telehealth solutions, a 2010 Intel survey found, with an 87 percent satisfaction rate. Among those not yet using telehealth technology, 50 percent plan to, within the next year. The survey also found that 89 percent of health care decision makers believe telehealth will transform health care over the next 10 years, according to Schwartz.
The new formats range from real time videoconferencing to secure online chats, and doctors are claiming that telehealth “is not only changing the way care gets delivered, but helping to improve medical outcomes by making care more accessible to patients who lack easy access, according to Ronald Dixon, a practicing general internist and director of the Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology, CIMIT, in Boston,” Schwartz reports.
“We do a lot of chronic disease management in primary care, which is where telehealth is the most valuable to me,” Dixon told Schwartz in an interview.
Telehealth, a new and highly popular form of healthcare, allows patients to stay in touch with their doctors and have their medical conditions monitored through the use of electronic devices and computer connections.
People with hypertension, diabetes, depression, coronary disease and patients with other chronic illnesses “can connect with doctors in their practices via a secure patient portal from their home or office computers and ask questions, or complete quick follow-up visits online — appointments they would otherwise be less likely to keep,” Schwartz writes.
And what about patients who find it too hard to travel to their doctors? Virtual visits are ideal for the growing number of those who too frail to travel, those in rural locations, young mothers who can’t find or afford childcare, and busy professionals who have difficulty taking time off during the work week, all fueling demand for remote patient monitoring, according to Schwartz.
Deborah DiSesa Hirsch is an award-winning health and technology writer who has worked for newspapers, magazines and IBM in her 20-year career. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by
Rich Steeves
