By Charles Tang, Zoe Huang, Vivi Cheng
Everything has changed from the outbreak of Covid-19, especially for telehealth and virtual care. These practices utilize technology and digital tools, such as video and audio appointment, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), virtual health assistant (VHA), and the Internet-of-Medical-Things (IoMT) to pave the way for more efficient treatment.
Telehealth Technology and Services
Telehealth technology has made it possible for patients to attend a virtual appointment instead of in-person visits. After the peak of the pandemic, the practice of telehealth visits can continue minimizing the spread of virus without missing any important appointment with the doctor.
The term telehealth refers to the treatment of various medical conditions without seeing the patient in person. Healthcare providers can use telehealth technology platforms such as live-stream, audio, or messages to diagnose conditions and address a patient’s concerns remotely. Telehealth treatment is often used to treat common illnesses, chronic conditions, or provide special services. It includes giving medical counseling, recommending local health facilities, or walking through recovery exercises.
The cofounder and chief technology officer at telehealth company eVisit Miles Romney said: “The future of telehealth – when virtual care will no longer be virtual care, it will just be care.”
Virtual Care Implementation
Virtual care is a broad term that comprises all healthcare interaction remotely with the patients. In addition to treating patients via telehealth technology, providers may include virtual visits (including telemedicine), remote patient monitoring, and digital clinical encounters. In brief, virtual care is in all ways that doctors and patients can use digital technology to communicate in real-time. While telehealth refers to long-distance patient care, virtual care is a broader term that refers to a variety of technological healthcare services.
A virtual visit is an alternative to the traditional face-to-face appointment between doctors and patients. Many patients embraced the technology. It is particularly useful for patients in rural areas who could not access advanced healthcare, disabled, immunocompromised patients who risk infection, and patients who have struggled with work or childcare issues.
Remote patient monitoring uses digital tools or technology to monitor and collect patients’ real-time physiological data, and transmit the data to healthcare providers to monitor, and then send alerts or recommendations based on the results. Remote patient monitoring is useful for patients with chronic conditions, a recent Software Advice survey found that those patients frequently require close monitoring, checkups, or exams to manage their health condition.
Digital clinical encounters involve a combination of clinical protocols, virtual health assistants, algorithms, AI systems for diagnosis, prescribing, and documentation for healthcare practices. With technological adoption, administrative tasks can save time and focus on the patients’ condition.
Healthcare Trends and its Innovation
Disruptive technologies such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), virtual health assistant (VHA), and the Internet-of-Medical-Things (IoMT) will start to be incorporated more into healthcare systems and facilities.
The augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) healthcare market will reach nearly 10 billion USD by 2028. These technologies allow healthcare professionals to test or try out new techniques; for instance, 3D modeling of human organs and tissues, virtual medical tests to predict how humans would respond. AR and VR technology can reduce live testing on animals and fast-track human clinical trials.
The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) is a category of IoT that collects medical devices and applications to connect healthcare IT systems through online networks. It allows medical devices equipped with Wi-Fi to communicate machine-to-machine, and be controlled remotely through software applications to send patients’ data. Wearable technology, one of the popular applications in the future, can help healthcare professionals monitor patients remotely that can turn healthcare into an advanced and accessible way.
The virtual health assistant (VHA) is an AI system that can assist healthcare providers improve processes and put much information in the hands of their users. Furthermore, VHA can enhance patients’ engagement by using web- and mobile-based interactivity and tools to effectively accomplish online health goals. For example, it helps tracking patient’s pre- and post- treatments by adopting text and voicemail confirmation.VHA can eliminate cancellations and reduce human resources. With the use of Voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) implementation for clinical settings, healthcare professionals are using VHA due to the rising popularity of AI, Deep Learning, Big Data, and speech recognition applications in digital devices.
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