Early thoughts on telemedicine
In the past few months, i have shared a few posts - mostly media articles - that highlight greater adoption of telemedicine in the United States. This renewed interest in teleconsultations was expected, given that the care seekers were hardly able to make a visit to their physicians.
Years back, i had done a systematic review of telemedicine projects - both in developed and low resource environments. Given the renewed interest in this topic, i wanted to share 3 discussion points. I would then evolve this discussion into an article with relevant data points.
Discussion Point 1: Physical and digital consultations - are the same?
So far our approach to teleconsultation is to emulate the physical consultation process in a digital environment. Patients take an appointment, in the same manner, they would be taking in a hospital or in a clinic. They wait in the same manner. Doctors would give comparable time to the patients in a teleconsultation, they would give in a clinic as if her patient would have a difficulty to have another shorter video session. But, digital and physical environments are never the same.
Discussion Point 2: Why to take teleconsultation?
The second point does have a bearing on the insights we get from the first point. The physical consultations would require certain preparedness both for the doctor and her patients. It can't happen too frequently and for apparent smaller reasons. Usually, physical consultations would always take place for the serious conditions of the patients. Does this principle also apply to teleconsultation? And if the patient does need teleconsultation for a serious condition, the patient may still need to opt for a physical consultation. Do we see the room for confusion here for providing a decision matrix for the patient?
Discussion Point 3: Is there any room for demand generation?
In COVID-19 times, health providers are experiencing a lower demand - be it physical or digital. Telemedicine has definitely given much-needed comfort to hundreds of thousands of patients. An assisted telemedicine model where a trained paramedic provides support to the patient during the call with the doctor has received acceptance from the patient community. Still, the level of awareness of telemedicine is quite low in the community. If there is a case for demand generation, we need to identify the messaging and channels.
I would update this post based on the feedback and additional data sources you might have to share.