If you are an avid follower of this space, you must have read our previous blogs that feature the two specific telemedicine types viz. Real-Time and Store-and-Forward. This is the concluding part of our 3-type-telemedicine series – Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM). Also referred to as Telemonitoring, RPM is a medical practice that allows healthcare professionals to keep tabs on a patient’s health, vital activities, signs, from a distance. T­he RPM telemedicine is often used to administer patients who are at high risk, for example, patients with some sort of chronic diseases or heart conditions and who have got discharged recently from the hospital. In this case, RPM telemedicine comes to the forefront. Let us discuss today this third type of telemedicine, and how healthcare providers can leverage its massive capabilities for maximum outcomes.

What is RPM

Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) is the telemedicine type that incorporates a process of managing chronic conditions of patients using  RPM technology. The very technology securely collects and exchanges patients’ data and does the monitoring from a distance, remote locations. Monitoring patients suffering from acute illness becomes a responsible task for the healthcare teams consisting of respective doctors, nurses attending to them.RPM enables you to monitor patients adopting  monitoring devices such as :

• Glucose-Meters for managing diabetes patients
• Oximeters for measuring blood-oxygen levels
• Continuous surveillance monitors for dementia patients
• Heart-Rate monitors for  managing congestive heart failure
• Blood- Pressure Cuffs  for measuring blood- pressure
• Musculoskeletal Risk- Stratification Software
• IoT-enabled grip-strength sensors for managing Parkinson’s patients
• Logging programs for calorie intake
• Logging programs for accurate exercise-regime

Thus, you see, how RPM telemedicine is facilitating an easy and convenient virtual care management. All it does is to gather and analyze health data for streamlining high-risk patient care, which helps to determine quickly if their health condition is improving or not, whether stabilized or deteriorating!

Benefits

RPM telemedicine gathers, brings real-time patients’ data to your fingertips all the time, 24/7. It makes an easy process for your clinicians and healthcare professionals enabling them to deliver quality healthcare services  It’s easy for you and your clinicians to use, and it enables the delivery of higher-quality care to a larger section of patients. In short, it leads to patients’ higher efficiency level owing to their less burnout and of course a much low-cost affair saving unnecessary expenses.

1. Constant Accessibility

Usually, it is a full-day affair for many patients to get a doctor’s appointment and get the complete treatment process started. People need to take their time off from busy schedules affecting their work and other daily priorities. Many people don’t have timely transportation facilities or inconvenient access to public transportation. Some struggle to leave toddlers or aging parents behind to avail of the medical facility, and many others. All these challenges are properly met and handled with care via RPM telemedicine technology. Even in the case of people living in remote areas, rural areas, there is limited access to healthcare facilities. Attending to doctors personally may require traveling far places, even to a different country entirely in case of certain conditions!RPM (Remote patient monitoring) solves all of these accessibility-related challenges and gives patients a seamless experience for constant access-provision to the healthcare services at virtual modes.

2. Patient Engagement

RPM telemedicine involves a two-way communication process to get the desired outcomes. Patients’ cooperation is sought in terms of their self-monitoring habits and timely engagement to adhere to the process rules. Patients and their caregivers, family members need to ensure that they are following the self-monitoring regimen as directed by the doctors. RPM is successful if patients are equally cooperating being in different locations. They need to perceive that RPM is for their benefits only, and that way stick to self-monitoring practice in an ethical and disciplined manner. When your patients witness directly how other patients are improving using RPM technology, they get motivated and follow the routine instructions responsibly. As a healthcare provider, you need to boost your patients’ engagement by being proactive on your part. Give them positive feedback even on their slightest improvements, check in often, opt for active and constant encouragement. It depends upon a patient’s chronic ailment and how difficult is his condition for improvement, that you should decide the frequency of interaction with them.

3. Quality Care

Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) telemedicine services help you for instant access to your patients who need your urgent attention. You can reach to them instantly at the exact moment when they are struggling with any sort of treatment blues, experiencing pain or undergoing confusion pangs, and so on. RPM allows you to provide treatment to your patients from your location on a remote basis quite comfortably, and on the other side, patients, too, receive treatment at their respective locations in a comfort zone. General medical routines become less stressful, efficient, and convenient when patients are cooperating with their medical team by constantly communicating with them. Therefore, RPM leads to saving time and energy, both, while allowing the medical team, clinicians, to attend to each patient deliberately and more calmly that also reduces staff’s burnout rate!

4. Better Outcome

Patients don’t have to scramble for appointments and struggle to manage time off their routine work. They can now afford, sincerely manage focus on your treatment instructions,self-monitoring becomes easy and convenient now. They can focus on what you say and you are managing them based on all the health data you gather via RPM technology. You see, how they’re being well informed, adequately educated leads to proper patient engagement and better outcomes. No doubt, RPM can effectively manage serious health situations like chronic heart failure following ­­­­a rapid intervention.

Bottom Line

 RPM telemedicine is dedicated to free up more energy, more time for healthcare providers while saving costs in abundance. It benefits patients, caregivers, providers, and the entire healthcare system. It is just about leveraging the immense power of digital technology that facilitates the gathering of patient data outside of traditional health care delivery settings. Advanced access to virtual care assures increased levels of patient-provider communications, improved patients’ engagement and involvement towards self-monitoring, RPM telemedicine is expanding its outreach exponentially the world over.

Interested to know more about RPM telemedicine and its immense business opportunities in healthcare? Contact us.

If you are a healthcare practitioner, you know how patients’ data become urgent at times for an emergency procedure while treating them on a remote basis. Relevant video recordings, images, become paramount for accurate diagnosis and recommendations. This is called store-and-forward telemedicine that allows you for an evidence-based healthcare practice. Also termed as an asynchronous, store-and-forward type of telemedicine allows collecting clinical data and information like demographic data, lab reports, medical history in the form of sound files or image/video formats, and then digitally sending them to a secure site, cloud-based platform, that can be accessible by authorized users only.

Security Aspects

Store-and-Forward telemedicine is not like your regular e-mail communication. Email is not a secured medium, is it? The very telemedicine type  (store-and-forward) needs to adhere to the security requirements of the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act(HIPAA). Thus, as a healthcare professional, you cannot use email for transferring patients’ data to specialists; physicians cannot use text messages/email for treatment provision or gathering patients’ medical information. You can use your mobile phone, desktop, laptop, tablet to avail of this telemedicine facility.

Do you know?

Store-and-forward telemedicine is different from real-time telemedicine in that it does not require a doctor, specialist, patients, any other healthcare stakeholders to be available at the same time!

Applied Areas

1. TeleRadiology

Teleradiology is one of the biggest wonders in the telemedicine sector. Store-and-forward telemedicine is increasingly expanding in the radiology realm by infusing digital technologies with this healthcare specialty at the micro-level. Radiologists today adopt this modern telemedicine tool that enables them to see cases from a distant, remote location. For example, MRI, X-ray, CT scans are accessed online, which enables a  radiologist to give the radiological diagnosis information and recommendations to consulting specialist/physician anytime (now or later). This way, store-and-forward telemedicine enables the radiologist to analyze multiple radiological images/videos/forms/charts in sooner time bringing inefficiency to the entire process. It is also used during an emergency when a general radiologist needs to consult a sub-specialist like a pediatric radiologist.

2. TeleOphthalmology

Teleophthalmology is the eye-screening healthcare facility that is done on a remote basis without the patient-doctor real-time interaction. It is a massive store-and-forward telemedicine service where a patient can click optical images, then send them to an ophthalmologist thereby facilitating early detection of ocular anomalies. This is indeed an improved and advanced healthcare service that is possible using digital technology. Another instance is when eye screenings of patients for diabetic retinopathy, are digitally captured by advanced retinal cameras, and then transmitted to eye specialists for their review and recommendations. This way, the eConsult segment, store-and-forward telemedicine is greatly helping the ophthalmology sector bringing in improved patient outcomes.

3. TeleDermatology

The teledermatology in-store-and-forward type of telemedicine means sending the images of skin lesions to a dermatologist who in turn views, diagnoses, and prescribes/recommends a proper treatment plan on a remote basis only. For instance, Nurses in a skin-lesion clinic or mole-mapping clinic, use this methodology of in-store-and-forward telemedicine procedure, send relevant laboratory reports to the concerned dermatologists/specialists for skin-cancer detection.

4. TelePathology

Pathology is another applied area where telemedicine enters as a facilitating force. Telepathology is the type of store-and-forward telemedicine application that helps to digitally transmit extensive,data-rich specimens like pathology images, videos, for examination by a pathologist located at a distance. It is used for diagnosis, research& education purposes, medical consultations, etc. Telepathology is widely used nowadays as it allows inter-consultations amongst specialists in pathology from across the world. It also supports very fast diagnosis and better management of patients irrespective of geographical boundaries. Telepathology system is divided into three major types – Real-Time system, Virtual-Slide System, as well as Image-based-Systems.

5. Specialist Referral Platform

The Store-and-forward type of telemedicine significantly provides a platform to healthcare professionals for specialist referrals. For example, a General Practitioner (GP)can transfer his patients’ data to the concerned specialists remotely. This way, experts’ opinions, consultation, can be taken on requirements for a better treatment process.

BENEFITS

The major benefits of Store-and-Forward type of Telemedicine are:

• Easy & convenient access to care
• Patient’s high satisfaction level
• Time-saving speedy process
• Increased efficiency
• Increased market potential attracting newer patients frequently
• Less liability owing to documentation, digital auditing trails
• Better practice skills for  the medical community, students, research scholars

One Among the BEST Healthcare Practices

The increasing graph in chronic diseases the world over is considered as a major driver for the global telemedicine market growth. While the market stood at a remarkable 27.04 billion USD in 2020, it is estimated to reach 171.81 billion USD by 2027 (source- Brand Essence Research). The Store-and Forward telemedicine platform is increasingly contributing to the massive surge in the sector, especially in the areas of dermatology, pathology, radiology, and ophthalmology. Practitioners, for example, are gaining by gathering and analyzing images,high-volume data for their accurate clinical decisions, at their convenient timing and places.

If you are in the healthcare business and willing to explore the power of store- and- forward telemedicine, this is the right place for you. Contact our exclusive experts from Telemedicine who can guide you through the step-by-step process.

Telemedicine is empowering the healthcare industry to a new dimension. The real-time interaction between doctor and patient is increasing the trust quotient of this digitally-enabled system. The convergence of digital technology, video conferencing, smartphones, mobile apps is making the process of telemedicine a convenient, affordable, and time-saving regimen for healthcare providers as well as their patients. The number of people using telemedicine is only showing an upper trend steadily over the years, and over half of the total U.S.hospitals having at least one telemedicine program as of now. As per Allied Market Research, by 2030, the telemedicine market size is estimated to grow at an impressive $431.82 billion globally, at a CAGR of 25.9% (source- GlobeNewswire). As telemedicine consists of three types, we are discussing only one specific type in today’s blog –  About the Real-Time interactive Telemedicine.

What is Real-Time Interactive Telemedicine

Healthcare services that can be provided to patients over virtual mode via devices like smartphones/mobile apps and have video calling features, texting features via messaging apps,  SMS, are described to be Real-Time Interactive Telemedicine.

The feature of interactive care within the gamut of telemedicine is the telecommunication between patients and respective healthcare providers and there occurs the real-time interaction. This method incorporates a live audio/video session, that involves discussing and transferring patients’ data while the session is still on between clinicians and patients. So, we can understand that real-time interactive telemedicine is very much similar to that one used in-person/physical visits to the clinics. The only difference here is the virtual mode but the benefits are more as compared to the in-person visits.

Applied Areas

1. Follow check-ups, once the  patients are discharged from hospitals

2. Mental health treatments like dementia, Neuropsychology

3. Pharmaceutical Advices

4. Remote Nursing Consultations

5. Post-Injury Rehabilitation Treatments

TeleNeuroPsychology

A significant use case of the real-time interactive telemedicine type is teleNeuropsychology. For a patient with a cognitive disorder or suspected to have one, a timely and convenient neuropsychological consultation, assessment can be done over the phone only, over mobile phone on video calls, direct talks between the doctor and the patient. Techniques that comply with a standard evaluation process are effectively implemented that leads to a genuine and fair assessment of the specific patient using video technology. A study has found out that this type of telemedicine service proves to be a very feasible and reliable alternative to conventional in-person consultations and assessments of patients’ cognitive behavior and neuro-psychology.

Telepharmacy

This mode of telemedicine service helps patients to get a smoother medication facility when it is not possible to visit a pharmacy, real-time virtual consultation gives them pharmaceutical advice. This facilitates thorough monitoring of patients concerning their medication part, and see if they require any in-between medical advice over the phone.

Telenursing

Telenursing means utilizing digital technologies for communication to provide nursing service on a remote basis.  Medical consultation can be delivered over mobile app-based video calls, or simply over message medium like Whatsapp, telenursing is being considered as a boon to the healthcare fraternity. Nurses do the diagnosis, monitoring of health symptoms and conditions using video calls mostly which are empowered by the advanced AI-ML-based digital technologies. Especially in the rural areas where people have limited healthcare facilities, they leverage this type of telemedicine for their treatment which requires a long-form of monitoring, consultation, and the entire treatment process.

Telerehabilitation

Telerehabilitation is considered a major technology boon empowered by telemedicine capabilities. The very telemedicine service utilizes digital technologies for communicating and performing clinical assessments for patients. Telerehabilitation is the adequate and most refined way today to conduct therapies for rehabilitation patients. This process involves strong visual elements, the latest technology-powered video conferences, webcams, etc. which are usually used for assisting in the communication of symptoms as well as clinical progress.

Conclusion

Telemedicine is rapidly increasing its reach to every nook and corner of the cities, countries, globally. Digitally-enabled video conferencing services, virtual consultations on video calls, mobile calls, will continue to play a significant role in telemedicine services and healthcare practices. All that requires is a digitally-capabled ecosystem and mutual collaboration between healthcare providers and their patients hailing from across the world.

How telemedicine can empower your healthcare business to the next level? Connect with us and get started right away!

Do you know India sets a new world record by administering over 75Crores Covid vaccine doses in the fight against corona? Thanks to the CoWIN app, the indigenous healthcare app in India that protects you from the precarious effects of coronavirus. The app allows you to follow a 3-step easy process viz.,booking an appointment, getting the vaccine as per slot allotted, and finally, downloading the COVID certificate, your licensed health certificate. The pandemic has accelerated digital adoption in healthcare, and people are increasingly resorting to web & mobile app-based home healthcare services, telemedicine. All these trigger digital health leading to quality personalized healthcare services across geographical boundaries. Be it healthcare providers, hospitals, clinics, businesses, or patients, healthcare apps are dominating the healthcare sector in India. Let’s find out a few of the best healthcare apps in India!

Figure1- Google Playstore

Google Playstore – Free & Paid Apps

1. PharmEasy – Online Medicine Ordering App

PharmEasy app is one of the most popular healthcare apps in India specializing in online pharmacy. It allows you to buy healthcare products, medical equipment, and OTC products online. You can even book online diagnostic tests and other preventive health checkups from the comfort zone of your home. Quite an easy mode of home delivery, a perfect online medicine delivery app for your medical needs.

Online Rating – 4.5

2. Practo- Online Doctor Appointments & Consultation

Practo is also a popular online doctor consultation app and it offers a complete range of telemedicine solutions for your medical needs. The Practo app allows you to access a wide network of multiple clinics, doctors who provide online consultations to patients across the country. The mobile app has more than  5 million installs by now across India. Patients can have a direct chat and calls with the doctors they consult. The app uses Google Map to identify doctors who are available in the locations near to patients.

Online Rating – 4.5

3. mFine

mFine is a top healthcare app in India while showing over 2 million app downloads by now. It offers 24*7 AI-enabled telemedicine services such as doctor-patient consultation, audio/video calls, etc. The very app connects more than thirty specializations for consultancy services. A patient has to pay for booking an appointment over the app but needs not to pay again during follow-ups. The app arranges for personalized digital prescriptions as well as home-diagnostic tests.

Online Rating – 4.5

4. Pedi -STAT

A significant healthcare app for pediatric patients in the emergency and critical care wards. Pedi-STAT app works for a timely and rapid reference for paramedics, RNs, physicians, and pediatricians.

Online Rating – 4.5

5. Critical – Medical Guide

A marvelous app that takes care of the entire critical care needs and a comprehensive guide for that regard.A complete critical care reference app for RNs, physicians, and other healthcare professionals.

Online Rating – 4

Figure2 – iOS Appstore

iOS Appstore – Free & Paid Apps

1. Apollo 247

Apollo 24|7  app is a renowned name in the healthcare domain and relates to Apollo Group of Hospitals. It provides outstanding app- services like a personalized level of health experience in all, priority access, and valued Prices. Absolutely a complete healthcare buddy that is available 24*7 anywhere in India.

Online Rating- 4

2. Netmeds

Netmeds app makes your medicine delivery an easy process. You can download and install the app to avail of medicine service from anywhere and anytime within India. Go to the app and tap over it to upload your specific requirement for medicines. The Netmeds healthcare app in India also allows you to consult doctors online, book lab tests, and obviously, home delivers your medicines.

Online Rating-4.5

3. Hompath FireFly

 It is a popular homeopathy app based in AppStore. Hompath FireFly app refers to  10 repertories directly from Kent, Boericke, Kent, Boenninghausen, and many more, while effectively managing patients’ cases over virtual mode anytime, anywhere.  This innovative mobile healthcare app is making people go crazy for its massive features and benefits.

Online Rating – 3

4. DrugDoses

DrugDoses app is the iOS version of  Frank Shann’s little booklet which has been helping the healthcare industry the world over for over 30 years towards prescribing medicines to children. So far, DrugDoses has more than 2150 entries. The app is yearly updated and updates information regarding the latest drugs in the market.

Online Rating – 4.5

5. MRCP PACES

A fantastic healthcare app in India, the MRCP PACES  app has some exclusive iPhone features that benefit a user’s journey while availing of this app service. For example, Some striking features of this app are that it does not require any subscription, once downloaded, no need for an internet connection, too. You should download the app and check its magical features.

Online Rating – not yet given

Conclusion

Digital health adoption is not a choice anymore rather a big necessity. Healthcare apps in India are crusading the healthcare industry with their massive digital capabilities that not only facilitate remote patient care but supporting the healthcare fraternity as a whole. The emergence of advanced digital technologies like IoMT, Blockchain. AI-ML, VR, and changing business models are playing a crucial role in driving the healthcare app-market in India.

Whether you are a Start-Up, Doctor, Lab, or Hospital Owner, we have a comprehensive range of healthcare solutions and apps that can aptly cover your end- to- ends needs. To know more, talk to our experts today.

Ever since the outbreak of COVID-19, digital technologies have taken a front seat in businesses across industries globally. The healthcare industry is harnessing the massive potential of digital in response to the pandemic, leveraging billions of online datasets, mobile phones, and connected devices. AI-ML NLP advances and varied other technological capabilities have made inevitable inroads into the lives of people, and healthcare businesses across platforms. The entire perception has transformed about healthcare and its massive appeal and consumers have undergone a major awakening in terms of being healthy via digital adoption. Covid-led unprecedented public health emergency has unfurled few things – Wider technological dependence with greater emphasis on remote-care, preventive measures while protecting personal data, adhering to privacy norms.COVID-19 pandemic is now acting as the biggest transformation catalyst in the consumers’ behavior and businesses involved in the healthcare sector. Let’s explore briefly but precisely!

1. Telemedicine

Covid-19 has created a paradigm shift in the healthcare sector,  focusing on virtual setups and remote treatment of patients. People got confined to homes and getting ill meant consulting a doctor on a digital platform. Several telemedicine apps have come to the fore and are surging on a greater scale today. Telemedicine is allowing healthcare providers to deliver healthcare services remotely. Technology is playing the main role, and remote patient care, online consultation, virtual treatment,home-diagnostics, etc. are helping people immensely. People are happy with telemedicine procedures and the healthcare fraternity, too. This acceptance is leading to massive adoption of digital technologies like AI, Robotics, IoT, Blockchain, etc. for creating modern telemedicine apps, solutions, and tools.

2. On-Demand Pharmacy

Consumers and healthcare businesses both leveraged the power of digital and resorted to mobile phones for specific apps, online pharmacy, and on-demand medicine delivery solutions. As per market research conducted by Zion Market research, the e-pharmacy market is estimated to grow to USD 107.53 B by the end of 2025. Pharmacy businesses have started adopting selected models as per requirement, viz., they can go for medicine delivery app for single-store, or can go for an aggregator medicine delivery app development type, or direct-to-customer type of customized app model. COVID-19 has opened up these avenues abundantly from business perspectives as well as consumers’ convenience and demand.

3. Health Insurance App Surge

The demand for health insurance rose in COVID times. People realized the importance of their health safety leading to a surge in demand for the coverup, Covid cover in particular. Health Insurers have come up with specialized mobile apps that are helping customers across b2b and b2c segments in the healthcare industry. As per a recent  Statista Report, there were 218 billion mobile apps download by consumers,  to their connected devices, in 2020 alone. So, mobile applications are benefitting consumers and insurance companies alike. Digital capabilities-led Insurance Mobile Apps allow three major types of functionalities-

• Functionality for healthcare providers – Allows direct access to patients’ histories, valuable doctor-patient communication.

• Functionality for Patients – Allows searchingfor doctors, accessing related documents as well as receiving timely reminders.

• Functionality for choosing as well as purchasing insurance policies– Allows users in choosing and purchasing perfect health insurance plans, even renew the existing policies. This functionality also includes in-app payments, communicating with insurance agents, and so on.

4. Shift to Healthy Lifestyle

People have realized the importance of Eating Healthy, Living Healthy. The COVID-19 has alarmed them that how a weak immune system can cost precious lives.   Immunity boosting has become their priority over the past two years and resorting to their 24*7 companion, mobile devices, for varied nutrition apps. Nutrition mobile apps help to track nutrition intakes and calorie counts, having an enormous database containing food insights, recipe importer, barcode scanner, restaurant logger, and a lot more.  These powerhouse apps help to monitor nutrition levels, weight balance, warning alerts for bad food habits, planning meals with nutrition facts, extracting insights based on personal data, etc. AI-ML-powered virtual apps help to provide personalized recommendations and have a multilingual platform.

5. Virtual Fitness

Fitness and wellness form the core of the healthcare industry. Fitness facilities shut down quickly after the pandemic struck at the onset of 2020. Amidst lockdowns, gyms and fitness centers had to close down for an unlimited period. Non-essential workers stayed at home which limited their fitness options and this triggered the rise of virtual fitness apps. Technology in the form of IoT-Sensor powered mobile apps, youtube videos are enabling people to get a long-term workout plan at home itself. Whether it is for losing weight or building strength,easy-to-follow video workout guides, a fitness app helps to track, map all runs and allows to log in to more than 500 activities (customized apps) like gym workouts, cycling, yoga, walking, cross-training, etc. The app provides a gear tracker that tracks mileage and can connect to varied devices to import, analyze personal data for regular guidance.

6. Realization on Logistics Challenge

One of the biggest challenges that surfaced during the pandemic was the lack of adequate logistics and inventory management systems. During the entire  COVID-19 pandemic, shortages in medical oxygen greatly affected hospitals in  India, Brazil, Nigeria, Peru, Italy, and even the US. Lack of timely supply of oxygen cylinders, oxygen concentrators, oxygen generators, etc. proved fatal to many COVID patients who succumbed because oxygen was not available on time. In the wake of this challenge, many companies chipped in and started resorting to mobile and web app-based digital tracking systems. This trend has picked momentum and there’s been a big boost in the web & mobile app development dealing with logistics and inventory solutions.

Health is Wealth via Technology

From 2020 onward, the world is seeing a major surge in healthcare technologies. Artificial Intelligence – IoT-powered telemedicine apps, virtual healthcare, remote patient-monitoring, self-care, etc. have picked momentum. People are opting for mobile apps to seek healthcare solutions at competitive costs. Virtual healthcare can deal with all health problems, with this realization the healthcare industry has started evolving at an unabated pace leveraging digital technologies across the ecosystem.

How healthcare has evolved for you? As healthcare applications and integrated technology get more accessible, it’s time businesses start investing in real transformation. Speak to our experts today!

Do you know ‘Coronavirus’ topped the list of Google Searches, 2020? Yes, Google processes billions of searches every day, and not surprisingly, ‘Coronavirus’ turned out to be the most searched term on Google in the erstwhile 2020. Why? Because people cared for their life. When life becomes uncertain, people seek answers. This phase in humanity brings about a transition in the world of digital healthcare where telemedicine comes out to be a unanimous choice! Advancements in AI as a cutting edge technology, its applications in telemedicine happened years ago. However, with the onset of COVID-19, telemedicine is back in full swing. In layman’s language, it is a digital application that allows doctors to prescribe medications, treat patients through their screens.

Let’s see how AI transformative capabilities are helping the telemedicine industry the world over.

1. Digitization of Patient-Doctor Relationship

Artificial Intelligence (AI) in collaboration with Edge technology, has empowered the telemedicine industry to a greater level. With the help of AI, telemedicine is evolving patient care and healthcare experience through smooth accessibility. It helps in remote patient monitoring(RPM) or telemonitoring that gathers patients’ data from medical centers, hospitals, to keep a tab on their health conditions. Telemedicine has been a major factor in treating COVID-19 while curbing its speed at the same time. For instance, AI technology helping telemedicine for remote-patient monitoring, where doctors could track the current health status of high-risk patients, by using internet-connected at-home devices and mobile applications where two-way communication becomes feasible. This process minimizes the health risks for elderly patients or post-op patients or those suffering from chronic illness.AI enabled Telemedicine facilitates collecting data from varied connected devices and gives insights to doctors who then do adjustments in care and monitoring of compliances for severe patients like coronary patients. The latter need to maintain specific medication and lifestyle changes to make progress in their health respectively.

2. Enabling Doctors’ Collaboration

AI feeds on data and new AI applications come to the fore when more data pools come out of the telemedicine processes like remote-care, and so on. Moreover, AI-based telemedicine facilitates hospitals, healthcare institutions, and clinics, doctors to mutually collaborate in novel ways. This way, they manage to pool resources from each other at critical times. For example, Banner Health, one of the largest non-profit systems existing in the US, during the surge of COVID-19 patients, collaborated with Intel, as well as VeeMEd, a telehealth platform, and brought AI-powered telemedicine software solutions to more than one thousand in-room televisions throughout  Banner-Health’s twenty-eight facilities in the country. This collaboration helped specialists (from pulmonology, infectious diseases, cardiology, critical care, nephrology) in the facilities to attend to more patients without risking COVID transmission. Another big help had been that these specialists did not need to spend on expensive personal protective equipment like masks, gloves, and face shields and could preserve them for emergency needs. All thanks to AI-powered telemedicine that allowed(and allowing) consulting with patients on a remote basis.

3. HIT or the Health Information Technology

AI-powered telemedicine facilitates the collecting, storing, and managing of massive electronic data in varied healthcare systems. This AI capability is called Health Information Technology(HIT) in telemedicine terminology. For instance, several electronic health records, e-prescriptions, etc. help patients and doctors to meet their mutual goals towards coping with diseases like diabetes, flu, viral diseases, etc. All these data are processed using HIT. How does it work? AI algorithms in HIT facilitate retrieving, systemizing medical data in various healthcare institutions, hospitals. Artificial Intelligence(AI) is helping in the segment of health information system in the following two ways-

• NLP helps physicians, doctors, to categorize records of patients, varied healthcare policies systematically.
• AI-based Neural Networks, are hugely applied for storing a wide scale of medical data. Also, it protects these data from fraudulence and unethical activities.

4. Tele Diagnosing of Patients

AI-powered tele-diagnosis of patients is a clinical method that incorporates a remote-based diagnosing of patients located across geographical boundaries. The telemedicine approach of this kind proves to be very effective in the early diagnosis of deadly diseases like cancer. Here, AI helps patients in early diagnosis of cancer, at its nascent stage itself when it is curable. Another area in telemedicine where AI is helping a lot is that of Tele-Dermatology. Like, detecting Melanoma, a severe type of skin cancer, is possible by AI-based Convolutional Neural Networks.

AI Lets Genie Out of the Bottle

 AI technology is helping the telemedicine industry in varied ways, in varied virtual forms. Virtual Online Assistants, Natural Language Processing, and many more forms of AI are increasingly progressing in the market, bringing several novel ways of treating patients on a remote basis. There already exist some popular virtual online assistants, or the Chatbots like Babylon Health, OneRemission, Florence, and so on. As Steve Allen, the director of health solutions, Intel’s Health and Life Sciences group, says, “I think it’s fair to say that telemedicine helped stop the collapse of the health system here in the U.S. Now, it’s becoming recognized as valuable technology with real benefits to all parties.”

He continues, “the genie is out of the bottle.”

Interested to know more about AI in telemedicine and how you can leverage it in your business? Contact US.

According to a survey by GreatCall, 93% of the doctors believe that healthcare apps and platforms can improve a patient’s health and 80% of physicians are already using mobile and web technology to deliver the patient care. 

The above image from Statista shows us how the market size has been affected by various domains and how it is estimated to increase by 50% in the near years. The market size is predicted to skyrocket by 2025 with a net worth of 60,000 million US dollars.

1. Healthcare Sector

The hospitals are provided with insights on the various patient records, diagnoses, cases etc. Using various business systems and data visualization tools, medical practitioners can operate better by getting real-time information that supports decisions and thus by this, they can deliver actionable insights.

2. Telemedicine

Telemedicine platform allows patients to seek medical advice remotely and discreetly regarding any symptoms they are developing, or possible side effects of certain treatments from certified doctors. The doctor helps in diagnosing the problem and offers consultation followed by the required prescription.

3. mHealth Applications

The health conscious crowd is increasing day by day. People are more drawn towards tracking their fitness and staying fit. These applications insure that a user can log in their exercises and other physical activities by syncing it with their wearable gears. 

4. Wellness

These wellness applications hellp a user to log their everyday lifestyle. They can log in their diets, and various physical activities. They are provided with data like their everyday calorie intake and an apt diet plan that is customised based on their daily activity, BMI, Age and Gender. There are apps that provide trainers and people a platform to exercise and meditate together at the comfort of home. Many apps also help women track their menstrual cycles and also look up for any common health related query. 

5. Healthcare booking

Appointments are automatically placed within an application where it gives the patient and doctor flexibility of time. It also generates automated reminders for both and synchronizes external calendars and doctors’ availability.

6. Clinical Decision Support (CDS)

CDS is a health IT component that has various tools to boost decision-making in the clinical workflow. These tools include computerized alerts and reminders to care providers and patients, clinical guidelines, condition-specific order sets, and other such things. It provides the medical experts and patients knowledge and person-specific information that is sorted by using technology that aids in making this process simple.

7. Wearable Sensors

The basic fitness sensors track the number of steps a person has taken in a day. The advanced wearable gears allow continuous monitoring of the heart rate of a person and also measure the blood pressure. Using this information, the device is able to calculate and report accurate data on calories burnt by exercising.

8. Mobile Wireless

Smartphones, tablets, and mobile apps are changing the physician-patient dynamic. These wireless devices empower the patients to control and improve their health and they also allow the medical experts to conveniently work using these technologies. Social media also plays a vital role in spreading awareness about health on a global level.

In conclusion, the digitization of the healthcare industry, technology provides equivalent opportunities for both the medical personnel and the patients to ease their respective demands.