A healthcare system is a critical component of every modern society. The overall health of the nation depends on how this system is organized and implemented, which is why experts continually streamline systems around the world. No doubt, it’s a challenging task, especially these days when the population is constantly growing, new viruses appear and mutate, and bacteria continue to evolve resistance to antibiotics.
One of the keys to successful healthcare outcomes is preemptive care – enabling people to regularly visit a doctor to check their overall health and respond to any problems before they grow and become more pronounced.
Quite often, there are situations when a person might suddenly feel slightly unwell, but they don’t have time or availability to visit the doctor on short notice – especially if they have to drive a good distance and take time off from work. Nine times out of ten these people will be fine; it’s just a little bug they’ve contracted that will work through their system and be gone within a week. However, for peace of mind and to determine which medicines they should take, if any, getting checked out by a doctor would be ideal. These are the situations in which technology becomes a ‘magic wand’; these are the situations, in which telehealth comes into play.
So, what is telehealth? Telehealth is basically the incorporation and use of technology in medical services that allows a doctor to communicate with and view the patient remotely, make a diagnosis, prescribe medicine if needed, chart patient progress and more. Meant for non-emergency situations, it’s a means of providing virtual medical service that helps save time both for the patient and the doctor. Telehealth has existed for quite a while, but with recent improvements in internet bandwidth and underlying technology, it’s becoming a much more viable means by which to conduct a doctor visit.
According to a recent study, the shortfall of primary care physicians over the next decade will be somewhere between 14,900 and 35,600. These challenges call for better technology and new approaches to treatment. In the words of digital medicine expert Eric Topol, “Medicine is about to go through its biggest shakeup in history.” Increasingly, the healthcare industry, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS), and state Medicaid programs are looking to telemedicine to plug the gaps in the system. As a result, current trends suggest that virtual home visits will be routine in the near future.
The critical factor that will put telehealth over the hump is adoption. Many doctors are wary of trying telemedicine because they don’t consider themselves ‘IT geeks’ and they’re sure the technology will get in the way of providing an accurate diagnosis. In fact, however, there’s nothing complicated to incorporating the technology into one’s practice. Nowadays, it’s easier than ever, one needs only choose a company that can make their transition to telemedicine simple and smooth.
One such company is iSalus healthcare, a company that provides affordable and innovative electronic health records and practice management solutions. Named after the ancient Roman goddess of health, the company has established itself as a top-notch provider of customer-centric, easily-implemented software solutions for a wide range of medical practices.
Dr. Chuck Dietzen, co-founder of iSalus, had a story typical of the industry. He had been constantly frustrated by the requirement to spend hours charting his patient visits rather than actually treating patients. He teamed up with Michael Hall, a software developer who developed large-scale solutions for Fortune 500 companies. Together, they made it their mission to provide healthcare professionals with affordable yet innovative electronic health records and practice management solutions that will increase their efficiency so they can spend more time focusing on patient care while continuing to grow their practice and maximize profitability.
Their first solution was OfficeEMR, which made it affordable and simple to manage just about any medical practice. It offers thousands of templates in almost every specialization, which makes customization far simpler and more robust.
Recognizing the lack of integrated telehealth systems on the market that can be used by any doctor regardless of their technical ability, the company has recently launched AnywhereCare, a fully integrated telehealth solution that is built directly into officeEMR. The product provides seamless communication with the certified EHR and all other iSalus products. With the help of AnywhereCare, the doctor can see the patient’s location and the list of the closest pharmacies to the patient; it can help bill the claim with ease making the documenting part of the work simple and even enjoyable.
With the help of new technologies like these, doctors can again concentrate on their primary goal of treating their patients – regardless of whether the patient walks through the door or is at home on the other side of town.