The first thing that pops up in our minds is that what is telehealth? Telehealth and technology are inter-relatable? As all of us are well aware of that internet which brings ease in our lives and makes our lives easy with the help of a global village which it creates by connecting people from every corner of the world. So, the health resources services administration brings ease to understand this term by defining it. We can say that telehealth is the use of telecommunication technologies and electronic information to support long-distance clinical health care, patient and professional health-related education, public health, and health communication. We can also say that this is the advanced form of clinics that helps the people that lives far away from quality health services. The technology includes in telehealth communication is video conferencing, store and forward imaging, and wireless communication. Most of the time this happens the consultant or doctor you want to see is not in your area so in these circumstances Telehealth plays a positive role.
Telehealth is also known as e-health (Electronic Health) or m-health (Mobile Health) or any type of remote health assistance provided to patients by a qualified physician. World Health Organization WHO also defines telehealth as virtual technologies and telecommunication that helps the patients to recover outside the hospital under complete guidance and experience. Let’s have a look at an example of telehealth. Let’s suppose someone has diabetes and could not able to consult the diabetes specialist. Telehealth helps him in such a way:
- Make contact with your doctor that helps you by uploading your food logs, the way of taking medicines, and also the prescribed medicines.
- Also, download the carbohydrate count application on the phone and use this application.
Now take today’s scenario the global pandemic situation created by coronavirus or COVID-19. All of us know the precautions of coronavirus that is social distancing, sanitizing and washing hands, intake of vitamin C, and high intake of water to keep the throat hydrated. The world is seriously affected by coronavirus pandemic. As all of the health experts are prescribing to stay at home. But if something happens to someone and they want to visit the doctor the risk of coronavirus spread is high. This is a pandemic disease that can easily spread from one person to another. In these circumstances’ telehealth helps both the doctors and patients. This process will help them to exchange information between doctors and patients. By the use of telehealth, we can prevent from coronavirus pandemic situation because still, we are observing social distancing that is the main and important precaution of coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic. Telehealth can be categorized into three areas. These three areas are discussed below:
- Remote Diagnosis: Mobile phone is the basic need of everyone even in rural areas. The quality health centers are not present in rural areas but telehealth technology helps rural people to get access to the best doctors, physicians in order to get a cure. Across the global many countries uses telehealth to approach rural areas to diagnose diseases like cancer, diabetes, and many other diseases. Researches also proved that this is an effective tool to provide quality care to the people of rural areas.
- Remote Monitoring: To get better treatment after the diagnosis of the disease the doctors need to find the root causes of illness by proper tests performed in the laboratory. Telehealth also has the solution for this that is a telemonitoring solution such as teleradiology or teleophthalmology. So, those patients don’t travel too long for the sake of these tests. This also improves rehabilitation.
- Education/Awareness: We all know that due to lack of resources the people living in rural areas have a lack of skills. For this proper counseling session of HIV, AIDS, Smoking, and multiple diseases like this. Studies also prove that telehealth successfully providing quality health care services to the far-away districts and rural areas of a country.
These all help to deal with the pandemic situation that is spread throughout the globe. This is done by staying home and taking the necessary precautions. These are the methods that help in the use of telehealth and also help to take control of the rapid spread of coronavirus pandemic. Telehealth brings ease for many of the people who are afraid to leave their houses in this situation of coronavirus or COVID-19.