Has anyone heard of telemedicine?
There's no question that advances in science and technology impress and confound me everyday. Telemedicine has got to be one of them!
Officially defined as the electronic exchange of medical information, telemedicine apparently has been originally developed close to fifty years ago. At that time there were many rural medical outposts that treated patients, and it was crucial to be able to have access to medical records and general medical information belonging to the larger, more centralized hospitals and medical establishments.
Today, technology as it is makes it as simple as a few clicks to access information that may be located on the other side of the globe, so patient care is no longer a geographical problem. Instead, telemedicine is now being used to address needs of convenience. In layman's terms, this means that family physicians and other medical providers are able to utilize telephones, video conferences, and secure online messages to correspond with patients and address basic medical questions and needs - such as appointment setting, filling of prescriptions, and the reporting of test results.
Not sure if this could apply to the Philippines, since eHealth is already pretty common in first world countries like the UK, but if you are a medical care provider considering expanding your practice, you might want to consider telemedicine. Right now I'm just happy about the Philippines and its blood donation drives. But if Manila will be able to receive donations (say from Bill Gates or Warren Buffet) for computer upgrades and specialized software, more doctors will be able to add telemedicine jobs to their practice, which means more revenue, more patients, and potentially better patient satisfaction rating.
This is a pretty neat TIL!
Officially defined as the electronic exchange of medical information, telemedicine apparently has been originally developed close to fifty years ago. At that time there were many rural medical outposts that treated patients, and it was crucial to be able to have access to medical records and general medical information belonging to the larger, more centralized hospitals and medical establishments.
Today, technology as it is makes it as simple as a few clicks to access information that may be located on the other side of the globe, so patient care is no longer a geographical problem. Instead, telemedicine is now being used to address needs of convenience. In layman's terms, this means that family physicians and other medical providers are able to utilize telephones, video conferences, and secure online messages to correspond with patients and address basic medical questions and needs - such as appointment setting, filling of prescriptions, and the reporting of test results.
Not sure if this could apply to the Philippines, since eHealth is already pretty common in first world countries like the UK, but if you are a medical care provider considering expanding your practice, you might want to consider telemedicine. Right now I'm just happy about the Philippines and its blood donation drives. But if Manila will be able to receive donations (say from Bill Gates or Warren Buffet) for computer upgrades and specialized software, more doctors will be able to add telemedicine jobs to their practice, which means more revenue, more patients, and potentially better patient satisfaction rating.
This is a pretty neat TIL!
