Introduction:
Telemedicine has revolutionized the present generation healthcare delivery system by exchanging medical information between two clinical locations for enhancing the medical expertise between the hospitals for better diagnosis, treatment and educational services.
Impact of Telemedicine services:
As telemedicine program prepares to become operational, it is important to market the availability of services. In most cases, the marketing initiative has two target audiences,
- Physicians who may benefit from the availability of telemedicine services in the local market to enhance competitive position
- The general population, who may derive substantial benefits from improved access to services.
Telemedicine programs that have high utilization, benefit from enhanced physician acceptance and greater Company support. It also offers the opportunity to identify compelling human-interest stories that effectively promote your Company.
Telemedicine has allowed families to obtain access to the highest quality medical specialists, without the costs or hardship of extended travel or the risk of lost income due to job absenteeism, and with the comfort of family and community support in the care process. These families experience medical outcome, which were not possible earlier. Further, companies that implement telemedicine programs are perceived as being on the cutting edge of technology advancements - an important attribute in the selection of a healthcare provider. The image created by a successful telemedicine program can have considerable impact on the public perception of your Company as a leader in the healthcare industry.
Benefits:
What Telemedicine does?
- Benefits the local doctor as he treats his patient without having to leave his place
- Telemedicine Centre can levy service charges for each Tele-consultation
- Cost reduction on each patient reduces the burden on Govt. bodies.
- Tele-radiology services will also be profitable to the telemedicine centre
- It can make specialty care more accessible to underserved rural and urban populations. Video consultations from a rural clinic to a specialist can alleviate travel and associated costs for patients.
- Video-conferencing also opens up new possibilities for continuing medical education or training for isolated or rural health practitioners, who may not be able to leave a rural practice to take part in professional meetings or educational opportunities
The benefits to the people are:
- Patients can interact with specialist doctor at the other end.
- Practical, safe, time and cost effective.
- Immediate access to medical specialists for second opinion.
- Quality healthcare at their place itself.
- Early diagnosis and treatment.
The benefits to the Doctors are:
- Effective and efficient use of medical and technological resources.
- Updating medical knowledge in various specialties through periodic referrals.
- Continuing medical education.
- Having the global medical community at the desktop.
- Enhanced Doctor-patient relationship.
The benefits to the Tertiary Care Institution are:
- Expansion of market share.
- Training for healthcare professionals, hence organizational expansion of Services
- Expansion of tertiary care network
- Providing support for all review cases thereby enhancing the reputation
Areas where Telemedicine could be applied:
Telecardiology with TTECG
TeleRadiology
Telepathology
Telepsychiatry
Teledermatology
Teleneurology
Other CME (Continuing Medical Education) Programs
Management Information System