Everyone believed that the health care system of most first world countries were perfect and was the best until the Novel Coronavirus (nCoronavirus) or Covid-19 came into existence. This virus has stretched the health sector so well that we now know we aren’t prepared for a pandemic just like Bill Gates said some 5 years back in a TED Talks. Amazingly, he used a flu or a strain of coronavirus. He made It clear that anything will be killing millions of people in the next decade, it won’t be a war rather, it will be a virus and today, a lot of people are now planning to continue live with the new normal instead of thinking about going back to their old lives since the old life isn’t certain now.
Even with the Covid-19 being the talk of the world currently, other patients are still have other diseases and injuries and this has brought up another problem; “How do we treat them without coming in contact?” this question has brought about technology coming to the rescue with Telemedicine. With telemedicine, Health workers and medical practitioners can communicate with their patients, treat and monitor their health progress without visiting the patients in person.
Telemedicine/Telehealth didn’t just start this year or the previous year, in fact, it dates back to the 1950s. it is believed that the telemedicine industry has grown to about 35% over the last decade to a market of about $45 billion. Before the outbreak of the Covid-19 Virus, a lot of people in the world do not use it. Think of it this way, about 85% of people in the United States did not use it in 2017 and even in second and third world countries, it wasn’t really a thing, but with the Virus, people needed to get medical health and didn’t want to visit the hospital due to the fear of having Covid-19 as a nosocomial disease. Also, since aged people were less immune to the virus and needed medical care, telemedicine became an option. A lot of telemedicine companies can attest to this increase in usage, you can check the usage of Telodoc health (It saw a rise in usage).
The Future of this technology is becoming widely acceptable and even the US government lifted taxes on telemedicine and this was done to help health workers from getting in contact with patients with Covid-19 but are yet to display symptoms. Also, it is believed that by the end of the year, telemedicine should be having up to billion visits. It is interesting to see technology and health come together to do some great things, the plasmabot by Microsoft, also Google and Apple also help patient find doctors using their maps.
Conclusion
Although this looks like a good future for medicine but it has its own downsides like;
Diseases and ailment range
Not all disease are the same and not all can be handle with telemedicine, in some cases, it requires the doctor to be there personally to examine the patients. This could be solved with the improvement in technology thereby using AI and Sensors to properly explain the symptoms and signs to the medical practitioners.
Price Difference
Unlike when patients visit the Doctors and Nurses at the hospital and pay well for their treatment, time and care, this is different with telemedicine. Patients pay less which is not too good for the other side of the party.
Reliable Internet Access
Maybe at this point, we will have to drop the 5G conspiracy theory and allow the internet to spread wide. Furthermore, the internet isn’t available for everyone in the world while those who have internet access, do not have a strong internet connection.
What will be the future of telemedicine and telemedicine companies, do you think technology can improve telemedicine usage worldwide?
