How Doctors and Patients Benefit from Teleconsultations
Over the past few months, there has been a dramatic increase in awareness of how doctors and patients benefit from teleconsultations. With the need to stay at home, those who have participated in telemedicine have come to appreciate its utility and simplicity when looking for treatment options. For those who haven’t yet made the leap into telemedicine, there may be a sense of unease in how a virtual platform can substitute for an in-person visit. However, teleconsultations can serve as a vital instrument for providers and patients as they navigate uncertain times while needing to have a dialogue to arrive at certain conclusions.
The Pan American Health Organization defines teleconsultations as “interactions that happen between a clinician and a patient for the purpose of providing diagnostic or therapeutic advice through electronic means”. When does this method become absolutely necessary for parties to take advantage? While in the midst of a global pandemic, if a healthcare provider or patient is unable to leave their own home due to COVID19 concerns or if a patient is immunocompromised then a teleconsultation can serve as a bridge between the two parties to allow important dialogue to flow.
According to an NIH study conducted in 2016 entitled “Teleconsultation and Clinical Decision Making: a Systematic Review”, researchers studied whether teleconsultations between physicians improved communication. The study found that teleconsultations between colleagues led to “shortened diagnosis time, faster and better patient management, improving [the] accuracy of triage, reduces anxiety, educational value, Increased confidence, reduced amount of unnecessary procedures and improved level of patient management”. Telemedicine isn’t just improving the line of communication between provider and patient, but between providers and in turn, this is leading to greater primary care provided to the patient.
In conclusion, doctors and patients can benefit from a virtual consultation. A virtual consult during visits can serve as a line of communication in uncertain situations, provide a user-friendly solution to busy patient schedules and ease the healthcare provider headache that is no-shows, and improve the dialogue providers have as colleagues when assisting one another inpatient care. Beam Health supplies a secure, HIPAA compliant line of communication that is easy to implement for the provider and does not require the patient to download an app or any software. Simply put: Beam makes telemedicine easy. Set up a demo with a member of our team to learn more about Beam Health and its offerings today!