How telemedicine is revolutionizing healthcare — is your practice prepared for the future?

By: Ryan Gibbons


The quality of the healthcare you provide is only as good as your patients’ ability to access it. With the aid of modern technologies such as video conferencing and the internet of things (IoT), more people are able to receive timely, accurate medical advice, treatments, and prescriptions. If you are wondering if telemedicine is right for you, rest assured that there are numerous ways in which telehealth services can expand your practice and increase the quality and scope of your offerings.

Reach out to underserved patients.

For patients with disabilities, for people who do not have access to transportation, and for those living in very remote areas, getting to your office regularly can be difficult if not impossible. As a direct consequence, conditions can go undiagnosed or untreated, potentially resulting in more complex health and financial situations down the line.

Adopting telemedicine into your practice means that you can bring your medical expertise into people’s homes without needing to do direct house calls. With video conferencing, you can meet with a patient face to face, allowing you to visually examine a patient and observe their signs and symptoms directly. With the help of the best merchant provider for telemedicine, you can provide a secure, trustworthy payment experience that lets patients pay at the time of their virtual visit, or even after the costs have been adjudicated by the insurance company.

Provide remote patient management.

Advancements in electronics and wireless technologies have made it possible for healthcare specialists to monitor various physical conditions from afar. These include diabetes, heart disease, asthma, and hypertension. In addition to gathering information through remote audio and video consultation, providers can read data that is transmitted by smart health wearables that measure glucose levels, heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, etc.

In addition, providers like you can input notes, write prescriptions and communicate with pharmacists, specialists, and other providers to provide comprehensive, consistent care. This enhanced quality even extends to emergency medical personnel, who can access up-to-the-minute data about a patient’s chronic condition at a glance in the field before they even reach the hospital.

Telemedicine and AI.

Telemedicine is also incorporating the advantages offered by cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) innovations. When you expand your practice by treating patients remotely through the use of broadband and wearables, AI can enhance your processes even further.

For instance, AI can use machine learning to customize the process of detailing a medical history during a telemedicine visit. Questions can be altered or refined based on the patient’s response, leading to more usable information obtained in less time. Additionally, AI can be used to send personalized medication and appointment reminders and to notify providers of changes in clinical data so that they can respond to them quickly and proactively.

Many people in the healthcare industry did not give telemedicine a second thought until the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, when treating virtually any patient was difficult if not impossible because of health and safety concerns, it finally received the recognition it had long deserved. Today, these technologies have become accepted, ongoing parts of an effective service delivery infrastructure, helping to ensure the delivery of high-quality care to a diverse range of patients. Meanwhile providers enjoy increased efficiency and accuracy, as well as enhanced collaboration with specialists and other professionals.

Have you taken some time to look into how telemedicine could transform your practice?