Thanks to the pandemic, we realize the shortcomings of our healthcare system more than ever in the world today. The inability is not just the time even the most advanced research institutions are taking to develop the vaccine but also how currently the other health issues have taken a backseat.
Healthcare is one of the world’s sectors that directly work on ensuring the biology of our well-being. We heavily rely on the industry to ensure our quality of life and helping us live a good and healthy life. Also, it is time to take healthcare industry on the cloud regardless of the social stature and economic division among various groups in society. All groups and segments of life equally want it as healthcare is more than just necessary.
It is worth wondering that while all of our attention is drawn towards finding a coronavirus cure, what is happening to the state of other treatments. For example, diabetes, dermatology, and other domains in medical science are watching their patients suffer in silence and not coming out due to the pandemic’s infectious nature. This is creating even more health risks for such patients who have frequent examinations and visits mandatory to their well being.
However, there is nothing to be scared of right now. Thanks to the advancement in technology that has opened the doors to healthcare’s latest telemedicine. Even though telemedicine has existed for decades, it is the only inference that people have realized it’s potentially more than ever. The role of Telemedicine has been played an important part during this pandemic globally. It helps the physicians to take good care of the patients amidst the pandemic.
Telemedicine is Needed More than Ever
To understand why telemedicine has suddenly gained so much traction, try to understand an analogous scenario. We, as humans, always knew that virtual modes of connecting have existed and we Skype with each other from distant places to enable smoother communication passages. We cherished the plentiful technology and acknowledged its features that helped in times of distress.
Yet we didn’t bring this idea to the table of the workplace. The culture of an organization always revolved around the concept of the physical presence of employees and decision-makers. The pandemic hit world suddenly shifted the culture of physical proximity into a far-fetching distance reality. Lockdowns were imposed, and people were seldom allowed to come out of the home. This turned the entire work culture of Software Application Development Company to work from home.
While the idea was earlier denied even to the employees most deserving it such as women, who found it difficult to bounce back to work after childbirth, etc., somehow all of us acclimatized to the remote working environment. Call it the need of the hour or desperate measures to keep everything going on. Humans somehow adopted. The same idea was extended to the healthcare sector. If business deals could be expertly made over a zoom or Microsoft Teams, call, why not the same for healthcare services.
Patient diagnosis can take place online, and a healthcare consultation became more comfortable than ever. More than a few studies today demonstrate how telemedicine has seen a striking rise ever since the pandemic hit the world. People are more and more drawn towards sitting in their homes and consulting doctors than going to a medical facility amidst the pandemic.
If you don’t believe the logical inference, statistics exist to back it up. According to recent research, as many as 92 percent of the people from healthcare organizations said that telehealth’s role had increased in their organizations since March 2020. Moreover, even the patients who preferred on-site treatment better than telemedicine were strongly motivated to switch to the former. The number of these patients was as many as 68 percent.
Turning Point for Telemedicine
There are no doubts that the pandemic has proven to be a turning point for telemedicine. More and more healthcare organizations are releasing their mobile apps that help patients connect with the medical experts of their choice via appointments. While this has tremendously reduced the on-site waiting durations for patients, it is also making the entire process more seamless. For example, the dependency of paperwork, unnecessary queues, and ambiguities are reduced and are vanishing as time passes. More to this, patients can manage their work in a better manner than ever before.
COVID-19 has been extremely conducive to telemedicine and opened the world’s eyes to such a potent technology. No matter how much scientists and experts cried about technology’s benefits, there was a wide gap among people and no end to their skepticism. Be it the compulsion of saying at home or the risk of catching the infectious pandemic, telemedicine is receiving its due credit.
However, as we slowly move towards a post-pandemic world, it is important to wonder whether we will be going back to the on-site healthcare model. Even if it is for follow-up checkups or little inquiries, does the traditional patient-doctor dynamic seem befitting to most people? While telemedicine cannot replace on-site care, there is no reason that we should altogether go back to the conventional healthcare system.
In other words, in the time to come, the myriad benefits of telemedicine will not vanish. Now that they have been realized, a majority of people will prefer to continue reaping the benefits of this model of healthcare system simply because of its convenience. Statistics suggest that as many as 96 percent of the people believe that telemedicine will only grow in the time to come.
Conclusion
Even those organizations that don’t have a technologically sound system for telemedicine in place will be developing one in the future. They plan on investing in technological capabilities for telemedicine to thrive in the modern environment. While this might take some time, it will soon materialize in the post-pandemic world.
Telemedicine is probably one of the best things that happened in the field of healthcare in recent times. It removed the feeling of doubt about technology from a majority of the population and opened the doors to a more advanced medical system for the world.
