In the past few years, the industry has gone through a revolution, especially through the telemedicine and wearables. These two innovations have preformed an enormous role in redesigning the paradigm of patient care and providing advancement on how to better the quality of medical treatment, the cost of such treatment, and also the availability of health care services. This particular article shall take a look at how telemedicine and wearable technology are revolutionizing healthcare with more focus on the benefits it has on patient care.
Telemedicine: Patient’s Care: A New Way Forward
Thus, telemedicine means performing clinical actions at a distance, when doctor and patient can interact through the use of telecommunications media. This way of delivering healthcare has been on the increase over the past several years because of the several positive outcomes it has been associated with such as availing healthcare to more patients , lowering the cost of healthcare as well as campaigning for efficiency in the delivery of healthcare.
Telemedicine presents one of the biggest opportunities in healthcare namely the promotion of increased access to care. Geographically inaccessible and poorly populated regions according to the literature lack the necessary health care practitioners, meaning there are scarce health care resources. Telemedicine does this by allowing patients in these areas to communicate with doctors through an online video call, or another medium. Not only does it permit patients to get the care they need, but it also eliminates variation in care quality according to the population group.
Also, telemedicine has been its cost advantage to the healthcare providers. Hence, through helping patients avoid long distances or time off work for appointments healthcare providers cut down their operating expenses. Thirdly, telemedicine smaller rates of expensive hospitalizations and emergency in-patient attendance, and thus contribute to lower health costs.
An additional benefit of telemedicine has been associated with enhancement of patient health status. In view of this, telemedicine calls for patients to access prompt and convenient care to eliminate risk factors and complications associated with chronic diseases. Additionally, the use of telemedicine enables a more frequently check-up of the patients and address their health problems beforehand.
Wearable Tech: Improve Healthcare Monitoring and Tracking
Smart devices to which an individual can wear include fitness trackers and smartwatches are popular these recent years. These devices also create the ability to monitor the patients’ condition and health thus increasing better patient care. Wearable technology now allows patients to monitor their movements, heart rate and sleep, other health indicators that may be followed by doctors and nurses for efficiency of treatment.
Based on the importance of preventive care, another advantage that has been realized to be associated with wearable tech is preventive care. Given the existence of wearable devices that constantly monitor a patient’s vital signs, the data can be used by health care providers to determine when such diseases begin to develop, as it’s a short period of time. This results in early diagnosis and treatment, then the achievement of good client status in the hospitals.
In addition, wearable technology can also be used in the monitoring of patients with different chronic illnesses. For instance, wearables can monitor the blood glucose levels of diabetic patients at all time so that their disease is well controlled. In the same way, smartwatches can track the pulse and atrial fibrillation of patients with cardiovascular diseases. Much attention to these shots may be paid to avoid compounding of such conditions and emergencies happening in the course of the treatment.
The third advantage is valid in the field of health, wearing technologies for rehabilitation and recovery. Assistive or rehabilitation devices being used include; exoskeletons and robotic limbs and are beneficial in helping patients regain functionality when a surgical operation is done or after an injury. These devices are going to offer levels of support and feedback that are difficult to receive through conventional rehabilitation, and also mean the patient is going to benefit in some way.
Last but not the least; wearable tech can help in enhancing the health status of chronic health conditions. Wearable devices, therefore, enable patients to control their health through giving them access to their health data. This will enable a patient to assess his or her status, where necessary make changes as well as improvements on some behaviors that they have forged to help enhance their health.
Challenges and Future Outlook
Even though telemedicine and wearable techs have many advantages in patient care, both technologies have several challenges. Among them is the problem of data confidentiality and integrity for data with individual patient information. With such technology as telemedicine and wearable technology, data generation has become rampant hence the need to protect data from being hacked.
This is to do with the acceptance of these technologies especially by the practitioners and the patients in the sector. Indeed, the use of telemedicine and wearable technology is prevalent nowadays; however, there are still health care professionals that have substantial doubts about its efficiency and efficacy. Similar, some people would not adopt this technologies because of privacy issues, cost or not being pro at tech.
As for the outlook, the tendencies of the interactive implementation of telemedicine and wearable technologies in the sphere of healthcare are expected to evolve. As these technologies become more sophisticated and easier to use, they definitely have the potential to drive changes in the delivery and reception of patient care, with a positive impact on mortality and morbidity, costs and on the overall availability of health care services. At the same time, it is crucial to discuss the barriers connected with the mentioned technologies because they are the key to improving the healthcare sphere.
Conclusion
The advancement in information and communication technologies in the field of telemedicine and wearable technology has led to a new frontier of health care delivery system presenting benefits such as raising the quality of medical care, containing the cost while expanding the access to health services. Telemedicine helps patients in areas that lack a wide variety of doctors, specialists, and facilities to get the support they require, and wearable tech makes a patient more in control of their state and symptoms.
With these technologies still advancing, everybody in the health sector, politicians, and patients should open up to them. We can also combine telemedicine and wearable technology in order to offer patients the desired results and improve the quality of treatment and overall health of the nation.
