Virtual Visits: A Digital Innovation

15 June, 2016, by ClinCaptureTeam

Digitization of the Healthcare Industry 

With the rest of the world going digital and finding ways to innovate and adapt accordingly, the healthcare industry has followed suit. With rising healthcare costs and consumer expectations, the healthcare industry is wise to find innovative solutions to address these issues.
In fact, according to the November 2013 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, healthcare costs have risen by 91% in 11 years, a study that can be examined more here.

Advancing digital and communication technologies such as Skype, and other video conferencing tools have introduced a new way of interacting online and remotely. These technologies are at the fingertips of anyone who uses a smartphone, tablet or PC. As such, it is no surprise that these new tools, are starting to transform the healthcare industry, attracting the attention of many healthcare professionals.

Recent studies have also shown that virtual visits are quickly moving into the realm of the mainstream. One study revealed that 76% of patients prioritize access to care over the need for human interaction, something that can be further examined here.

Clinical trials have begun to benefit from crowdsourcing and data-mining on the cloud. Thanks to the internet and increasingly sophisticated testing and monitoring software, doctors can get vital patient information without ever having to be in the same room as the patient. This has led to an increase in virtual visits, an old technique given a new life.

Seeing the success of clinical trials and crowdsourcing to pool resources and diagnose/treat medical conditions online, medical professionals are starting to get on board with the digital trend.

Virtual Visits: What Are They?

Virtual visits are a way for doctors and their patients to communicate in real time from different locations via a PC, smartphone, tablet, or a specially designed health kiosk. The realm of digital healthcare visits also includes ‘store and forward’ technologies that facilitate clinical information to be shared. This information can include X-rays, blood pressure, pulse, and other imaging reports or vital patient information.

The concept of virtual visits is not new. In fact, they have been around for quite some time. In 1997, Friedman et al. published a paper in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association entitled ‘The Virtual Visit: Using Telecommunications Technology to Take Care of Patients’ about how the idea of healthcare professionals and patients communicating remotely via telephone is ‘well accepted by patients and their providers and can improve clinical outcomes.’ This study laid the foundation for what was to come.

Convenience & Reduced Costs
Some virtual visit providers are expected to deliver care within 30 minutes or less from the time of the patient’s request, or at another scheduled time, should the patient prefer.(1)

Offering remote visits is convenient for providers and patients alike. For both parties, conducting virtual visits for those in remote areas reduces travel expenses, and results in fewer hours missed at work. The virtual visit allows a doctor to treat more patients in a day, and a patient can take less time off work. Furthermore, people can make the decision to live or retire in a more remote area without worrying about their care, as it will come to them. This provides a significant advantage for the elderly, or those with recurrent health issues.

Virtual visits also significantly improve a patient’s experience; the ability to communicate with a healthcare professional from the comfort of your own home is much more desirable than having to sit in a doctor’s waiting room. Waiting rooms can pose problems for those who suffer from weakened immune systems, such as the elderly. Instead, a patient can comfortably wait in their own home. One provider has even begun to offer health-related animations in their virtual waiting room.

Improved Security
By offering healthcare visits remotely, providers can offer a more secure alternative for healthcare professionals who work with high-risk patients, such as those in prison, or those who have the potential to harm their caregiver.

Increased Patient Engagement & Better Outcomes
Screen sharing has enabled patients to be more engaged in their visits, such as seeing their X-ray results, and being talked through them in detail by their doctor. Additionally, health kiosks can listen to a patient’s heartbeat, take blood pressure and look in a patient’s ear with an otoscope.
Furthermore, virtual visits facilitate automatic record keeping, which makes records almost instantaneous, saving time, money, and improving the efficiency of healthcare providers.

Although the concept of virtual visits has been around since the 90s, there is no doubt that the future of virtual visits is bright, and the advancement of innovative digital and communication technologies is only going to expedite the process. This breakthrough in technology has the potential to transform the healthcare industry. The benefits it can provide to both patients and healthcare providers are numerous. Innovations like the virtual visit are just an example of some exciting new developments in the healthcare industry.

Source:

• ⁽¹⁾  United Healthcare Services Virtual Clinic FAQ

 Other resources:

• http://go.galegroup.com/ps/anonymous?id=GALE%7CA409713934&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=fulltext&issn=15365026&p=AONE&sw=w&authCount=1&isAnonymousEntry=true
• https://www.ghdonline.org/uploads/Virtual_Visits_Confronting_the_Challenges_of_Telemedicine.pdf
• http://medicaleconomics.modernmedicine.com/medical-economics/news/physicians-and-telehealth-it-time-embrace-virtual-visits
• http://www.strategyand.pwc.com/reports/virtual-health