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Telemedicine, the rapidly developing application of clinical medical services utilizing today’s advanced communication technology, is moving forward at an escalating pace. Challenges to its wide spread implementation are being overcome with advancements and refinements to the technology. As physicians and patients concerns over the effectiveness of care and information security are addressed, the promises of lower cost, more accessible, quality, health care conducted via the internet is gaining popularity among healthcare providers and patients alike.
With the concept of telemedicine now having been successfully established, AcuteCare Telemedicine is utilizing the modern communication technology to enable personal neurology consultation when doctor and patient are in different locations. ACT makes urgent stroke care accessible for more patients and cost-effective for hospitals and clinicians. Expanding clinical services where physicians electronically treat patients directly without a clinician being present with the patient is the most logical next step in the technology’s progression.
Patients and physicians in Hawaii are now able to enroll in Hawaii Medical Service Association (HMSA) Online Care program where patients receive care from participating doctors who are scheduled to be reachable at that moment. HMSA says thousands of patients have registered, and in New York, about 10,000 individuals, most of them residents of the New York metropolitan area, can already get an online emergency consultation with emergency room physicians.
Jay Sanders, president emeritus of the American Telemedicine Association says, “Probably the most powerful aspect of telemedicine is improving access and improving the convenience of a lot of elements of healthcare, so, whether you’re talking about folks who would have a hard time getting to a specialist or whether you’re talking about someone who is in a jam and needs to see a doctor before they go on a business trip, telemedicine clinics are very valuable. These technologies are unlikely to replace office or hospital visits entirely”, says Sanders. “But they are tools physicians can add to an evolving ‘electronic black bag,’ as he calls it—the updated equivalent of the battered leather case brought along on house calls in a bygone age.
AcuteCare Telemedicine Blog 