Telemedicine; Benefits and Limitations

With advancements in science and tech comes progress, ease and adaptation in all fields. Medicine is not spared and telemedicine has come to bridge some gaps in healthcare.

Telemedicine simply refers to the communication of doctor and patient using electronic communication devices while being in different locations physically. It involves diagnosis, monitoring, prescription, treatment etc without physical contact.

Now this is a very useful tool for many reasons for example;

• For patients who are so far from the doctor or who cannot immediately move to the hospital.
• Patients whose conditions prevent them from meeting other people to avoid spread
• Patients whose conditions require a specific specialist or specialty which is not readily available in their own location

That is to say that telemedicine is a very useful tool with lots of advantages that we should embrace and make it even more beneficial.

Despite the advantages, telemedicine is not without limitations and so efforts should be made to navigate these areas and ensure a more holistic patient care.
For example;

• Misdiagnosis; one of the key steps of medical practice which is physical examination of a patient is skipped in this kind of interaction as it is impossible to touch the patient inorder to elicit signs of a disease. The physician is then forced to rely on the history as given by the patient and some investigations to arrive at a diagnosis which could be wrong.
• Privacy and confidentiality: may be difficult to be maintained in such circumstances as with the internet, you never know who may be listening and what the patient shares with the doctor could become public gist if not handled properly.

There are more benefits and more limitations than I shared, this is just an attempt at scratching the surface of what is obtainable with telemedicine.

It is not an entirely new aspect of medicine because doctors have been interacting with patients over the phone since the inception of telephone, it has just gotten more attention because of the various advances in communication technology and social media.