Does Telemedicine Replacing your Physician ?

Does Telemedicine Replacing your Physician ?

Physicians have many years of training and can diagnose with reference to the specific needs of the patient." Building a close relationship with your GP may prevent you feeling embarrassed.

 

Australian national online survey by health insurer HCF found 62 per cent of women and 52 per cent of men went online as soon as an unfamiliar health issue arose. More than half of those aged 18-34 said they were too embarrassed to talk to a GP. Twenty two per cent of 55 to 64-year-olds said they, too, were scared to see the doctor, so went online. Despite the trend, 65 per cent of people said they didn't trust the online advice so went to the doctor anyway.

 

As an advice, it’s important to treat the internet as an information tool and not as a substitute for medical care. Always see your doctor for professional diagnosis and treatment. Otherwise, you may be wasting time, money and emotional energy taking care of a disease that you don't actually have. "Always see your GP if you have any health concerns.

 

In the advent of Telemedicine research, there are many more concepts that people may misunderstood, as a contrary it’s just an media – Telemedicine / Telehealth or in broader sense e-health is not something robotic – and make your physicians decision …

 

You may be interested on various types of telemedicine being offered by many organizations.

 

Types of telemedicine

 

Telemedicine can be broken into three main categories: store-and-forward, remote monitoring and interactive services.

 

Benefits and uses

 

Telemedicine is most beneficial for populations living in isolated communities and remote regions and is currently being applied in virtually all medical domains. Specialties that use telemedicine often use a 'tele-' prefix; for example, telemedicine as applied by radiologists is called 'teleradiology'. Similarly telemedicine as applied by cardiologists is termed as 'telecardiology', etc... Telemedicine is also useful as a communication tool between a general practitioner and a specialist available at a remote location.

 

Telecardiology

 

ECG or electrocardiograph can be transmitted using telephone and wireless. Einthoven, the inventor of the ECG, actually did tests with transmission of ECG through telephone lines. This was because the hospital did not allow him to move patients outside the hospital to his laboratory for testing of his new device. In 1906 Einthoven came up with a way to transmit the data from the hospital directly to his lab

 

Teleradiology

 

Teleradiology is the ability to send radiographic images from one location to another. For this process to be implemented, three essential components are required, an image sending station, a transmission network, and a receiving / image review station. The most typical implementation are two computers connected via Internet. The computer at the receiving end will need to have a high-quality display screen that has been tested and cleared for clinical purposes. Sometimes the receiving computer will have a printer so that images can be printed for convenience.

The teleradiology process begins at the image sending station. The radiographic image and a modem or other connections are required for this first step. The image is scanned and then sent via the network connection to the receiving computer.

Telemedicine, Gen Y and Internet An Exponential Growth

As the leading research shows, More than 75 per cent of Australians use the internet to self-diagnose, with Gen Y and women the busiest web medicos. Research reveals increasing numbers of young people are using the internet to find out what is wrong because they are embarrassed to share intimate details with a doctor.

Telemedicine generally refers to the use of communications and information technologies for the delivery of clinical care. Care at a distance (also called in absentia care), is an old practice which was often conducted via post. Telemedicine is a rapidly developing-developed application framework of clinical medicine where medical information is transferred – shared through interactive audiovisual media for the purpose of consulting, and sometimes remote medical procedures or examinations.

Telemedicine may be as simple as two health professionals discussing a case over the telephone, or as complex as using satellite technology and videoconferencing equipment to conduct a real-time consultation between medical specialists in two different countries. Today’s Information and communication giant’s are offering many more feature driven off-the-shelf products and services to deliver and ease of these platform. There has been a long and successful history of in absentia health care which, thanks to modern communication technology, has evolved into what we know as modern telemedicine. In its early manifestations, African villagers used smoke signals to warn people to stay away.

The survey also revealed 70 per cent of Australians were happy with their health.