Telemedicine has been gaining more and more space today, and this is due to the fact that, since the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic, consultations had to be carried out remotely to spare the population the risks of contamination. For this reason, teleconsultations have gained the preference of several patients, including those over 45 years of age.
Despite very similar names, telemedicine and teleconsultation are not exactly the same thing. We call telemedicine the use of information and communication technologies to provide information and medical attention to patients who are in places far from the health professional. Within telemedicine, there are several types of care, and teleconsultation is one of them. Teleconsultation is characterized by a remote medical consultation, where the health professional and patient are in different locations, being mediated by technologies, such as medical software, such as Ninsaúde Apolo.
The teleconsultation modality is being beneficial both for health professionals from the most diverse areas, as well as for their patients. The fact that it does not require a displacement of both parties to start a consultation, has had a positive impact on the lives of people who use this modality.
Before we continue, we need to know: Do you already use medical software to perform your calls? We invite you to get to know Ninsaúde Apolo, an online software that can be used on a tablet, smartphone, or in the traditional way, on computers. Learn more on our website apolo.app.
After two years of a pandemic, health in the world has already gone through ups and downs, and currently, we already have a good part of the population vaccinated against the new coronavirus. Despite this, many people still do not feel comfortable keeping in touch with other people and going to public places, and this is one of the reasons why telemedicine has gained the preference of many, including elderly people.
Advantages of teleconsultation
The use of telemedicine is extremely important for both parties - healthcare professionals and patients. Even with a drop in the number of hospitalizations due to the coronavirus, this type of service must be still available, and professionals who are not adept at this modality may even end up losing their patients to colleagues in the same area.
The advantages that telemedicine care brings are valid for all ages, but especially for people of advanced age, who often have problems traveling to a clinic or office to attend a face-to-face consultation. This difficulty is due to several factors, check some of them below.
- Difficulty in locomotion: instability when walking and difficulty in getting in and out of a chair are some of the problems that older people can experience, and that contribute to the abandonment of leaving home to go to a face-to-face consultation. In most cases, these people need a companion, whether family or a person hired especially for your care, but it is not always possible to get someone, which is also considered one of the obstacles.
- Dependency on family members: in several cases, the patient depends on a family member to accompany him to the consultations. The fact is that family members are often not available due to other commitments, such as work, for example, and thus it is impossible to find an opening to travel as the patient's companion.
- Transport and locomotion: even those more independent patients may have difficulty getting to a clinic, and this is because many do not have their means of transport, and in some cases, relying on public transport or even an Uber or taxi ends up making things difficult due to several factors.
In addition to the factors mentioned above, there is still concern about the coronavirus, after all, people over 60 are part of the risk group for contagion.
Something that can be seen as an obstacle is the fact that teleconsultation is done through an electronic device. This thought occurs because, in general, people of more advanced age find some difficulties when making use of technology, but the fact is that accessing a teleconsultation is very simple, so the health professional or even the secretary can contact these patients before the consultation to instruct them on how to proceed.
If the health professional uses the medical software Ninsaúde Apolo, as soon as he opens the consultation screen, to use telemedicine it is necessary to send a link so that the patient can join the video call. The link can be sent by email or WhatsApp, and in both options, a standard message is sent next to the link informing that it is necessary to access it to start the consultation.
After clicking on the link, the patient also needs to check the option "I agree with the terms of use of telecare", these terms are inserted in the page that was accessed through the link. In addition, not only the patient, but both parties must be aware that a good internet connection is necessary for the teleconsultation to be carried out effectively, and that if there is a loss of connection during the teleconsultation, there will be a need for a new connection to continue the teleconsultation.
Teleconsultation is a form of telemedicine that can be used through a cell phone, tablet, or computer, provided that the chosen device has a camera. Therefore, both physicians and patients have more than one option of an electronic device to carry out teleconsultations, just choose the one that is more practical or easier for you to access.
If you still do not use telemedicine in your consultations, we recommend that you hire medical software, such as Ninsaúde Apolo. At the beginning of the pandemic, many professionals were using applications such as Zoom, and Google Meet, among others, however, this is not a safe way to perform your care, for reasons of medical confidentiality, among others.
To know all the advantages of Ninsaúde Apolo, visit the Apolo.app website and request a demo.
Source: Medicina S/A