Electronic consultation

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Electronic consultation is an aspect of telemedicine which involves remote communication between patients and clinicians, or between clinicians and specialists.

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E-consult was one of the earlier applications which primary care physicians could use to consult specialists. Dermatology [1] lent itself to this approach as pictures could be sent for examination in a specialist centre in a process analogous to the well-established treatment of pathological specimens. The widespread use of electronic health records is reducing the need for specialist applications of this kind. There is developing interest in the application of such techniques in mental health. See remote therapy.

Consultation applications

Getting an appointment with care specialists can be difficult. But electronic consultation has stepped in to provide medical diagnosis or evaluation that can be carried out over the phone from the comfort of your home. Your healthcare provider can easily place a voice or video call to you, engage you with some test questions, analyze symptoms of ailments, treat and manage them. Improved technology has made electronic consultation easier, even for those who don't consider themselves computer savvy. You can use electronic consultation through online platforms or mobile apps and request a virtual visit with doctors, practitioners, and therapists. [2]

The patient arranges an interview, generally by video, with a clinician, generally a general practitioner:

See also: Online doctor

Symptom checkers

These let patients enter their symptoms into an application. A report may be generated and sent to a clinician. Triaging applications, such as used by NHS 111 advise on the urgency of the problem.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Telehealth</span> Health care by telecommunication

Telehealth is the distribution of health-related services and information via electronic information and telecommunication technologies. It allows long-distance patient and clinician contact, care, advice, reminders, education, intervention, monitoring, and remote admissions. Telemedicine is sometimes used as a synonym, or is used in a more limited sense to describe remote clinical services, such as diagnosis and monitoring. When rural settings, lack of transport, a lack of mobility, conditions due to outbreaks, epidemics or pandemics, decreased funding, or a lack of staff restrict access to care, telehealth may bridge the gap as well as provide distance-learning; meetings, supervision, and presentations between practitioners; online information and health data management and healthcare system integration. Telehealth could include two clinicians discussing a case over video conference; a robotic surgery occurring through remote access; physical therapy done via digital monitoring instruments, live feed and application combinations; tests being forwarded between facilities for interpretation by a higher specialist; home monitoring through continuous sending of patient health data; client to practitioner online conference; or even videophone interpretation during a consult.

eHealth describes healthcare services which are supported by digital processes, communication or technology such as electronic prescribing, Telehealth, or Electronic Health Records (EHRs). The use of electronic processes in healthcare dated back to at least the 1990s. Usage of the term varies as it covers not just "Internet medicine" as it was conceived during that time, but also "virtually everything related to computers and medicine". A study in 2005 found 51 unique definitions. Some argue that it is interchangeable with health informatics with a broad definition covering electronic/digital processes in health while others use it in the narrower sense of healthcare practice using the Internet. It can also include health applications and links on mobile phones, referred to as mHealth or m-Health.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Telenursing</span>

Telenursing refers to the use of information technology in the provision of nursing services whenever physical distance exists between patient and nurse, or between any number of nurses. As a field, it is part of telemedicine, and has many points of contacts with other medical and non-medical applications, such as telediagnosis, teleconsultation, and telemonitoring. The field, however, is still being developed as the information on telenursing isn't comprehensive enough.

The most common mode of healthcare delivery is through personal, face-to-face contact between a healthcare provider and a beneficiary (patient). There is, however, an increasing trend towards the provision of healthcare in the absence of personal contact. This limit of contact during patient care is known as in absentia health care.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Telepsychiatry</span> Mental-health care by telecommunication

Telepsychiatry or telemental health refers to the use of telecommunications technology to deliver psychiatric care remotely for people with mental health conditions. It is a branch of telemedicine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Medical diagnosis</span> Process to identify a disease or disorder

Medical diagnosis is the process of determining which disease or condition explains a person's symptoms and signs. It is most often referred to as diagnosis with the medical context being implicit. The information required for diagnosis is typically collected from a history and physical examination of the person seeking medical care. Often, one or more diagnostic procedures, such as medical tests, are also done during the process. Sometimes the posthumous diagnosis is considered a kind of medical diagnosis.

Teledermatology is a subspecialty in the medical field of dermatology and probably one of the most common applications of telemedicine and e-health. In teledermatology, telecommunication technologies are used to exchange medical information over a distance using audio, visual, and data communication. Applications comprise health care management such as diagnoses, consultation, and treatment as well as (continuous) education.

Connected health is a socio-technical model for healthcare management and delivery by using technology to provide healthcare services remotely. Connected health, also known as technology enabled care (TEC) aims to maximize healthcare resources and provide increased, flexible opportunities for consumers to engage with clinicians and better self-manage their care. It uses readily available consumer technologies to deliver patient care outside of the hospital or doctor's office. Connected health encompasses programs in telehealth, remote care and disease and lifestyle management, often leverages existing technologies such as connected devices using cellular networks and is associated with efforts to improve chronic care. However, there is an increasing blur between software capabilities and healthcare needs whereby technologists are now providing the solutions to support consumer wellness and provide the connectivity between patient data, information and decisions. This calls for new techniques to guide Connected Health solutions such as "design thinking" to support software developers in clearly identifying healthcare requirements, and extend and enrich traditional software requirements gathering techniques.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doctor's visit</span>

A doctor's visit, also known as a physician office visit or a consultation, or a ward round in an inpatient care context, is a meeting between a patient with a physician to get health advice or treatment plan for a symptom or condition, most often at a professional health facility such as a doctor's office, clinic or hospital. According to a survey in the United States, a physician typically sees between 50 and 100 patients per week, but it may vary with medical specialty, but differs only little by community size such as metropolitan versus rural areas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Remote patient monitoring</span>

Remote patient monitoring (RPM) is a technology to enable monitoring of patients outside of conventional clinical settings, such as in the home or in a remote area, which may increase access to care and decrease healthcare delivery costs. RPM involves the constant remote care of patients by their physicians, often to track physical symptoms, chronic conditions, or post-hospitalization rehab.

Online doctor is a term that emerged during the 2000s, used by both the media and academics, to describe a generation of physicians and health practitioners who deliver healthcare, including drug prescription, over the internet.

Digital health is a discipline that includes digital care programs, technologies with health, healthcare, living, and society to enhance the efficiency of healthcare delivery and to make medicine more personalized and precise. It uses information and communication technologies to facilitate understanding of health problems and challenges faced by people receiving medical treatment and social prescribing in more personalised and precise ways. The definitions of digital health and its remits overlap in many ways with those of health and medical informatics.

Telehomecare (THC) is a subfield within telehealth. It involves the delivery of healthcare services to patients at home through the use of telecommunications technologies, which enable the interaction of voice, video, and health-related data. The management of care is done from an external site by a healthcare professional.

eConsult is a medical app developed by the Hurley Group.

American Well Corporation, doing business as Amwell, is a telemedicine company based in Boston, Massachusetts, that connects patients with doctors over secure video. Amwell sells its platform as a subscription service to healthcare providers to put their medical professionals online and its proprietary software development kits, APIs, and system integrations enable clients to embed telehealth into existing workflows utilized by providers and patients.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OpenNotes</span> Movement and research initiative

OpenNotes is a research initiative and international movement located at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Teladoc Health, Inc. is a multinational telemedicine and virtual healthcare company headquartered in the United States. Primary services include telehealth, medical opinions, AI and analytics, telehealth devices and licensable platform services. In particular, Teladoc Health uses telephone and videoconferencing software as well as mobile apps to provide on-demand remote medical care.

Babylon Health is a digital-first health service provider that combines an artificial intelligence powered platform with virtual clinical operations for patients. Patients are connected with health care professionals through their web and mobile application.

e-consult is a mechanism developed by the Department of Veterans Affairs that enables primary care providers to obtain specialists' inputs into a patient's care treatment without requiring the patient to go to a face-to-face visit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the telehealth industry</span> Impact of coronavirus on telehealth

Telehealth is the practice of providing healthcare via communication between the healthcare practitioner and the patient through electronic (virtual) methods such as telephones, smartphones, tablets, and computers. Telehealth permits patients to communicate with professionals via telephone, secure email, video chat, and in some instances secure messaging. Physicians may also utilize the telehealth systems for remote monitoring of patients at home. When the telehealth industry was founded, it was primarily used to provide services to underserved and rural area patients, enabled people to connect to specialists not located nearby. Telehealth was initially used predominantly for specialties such as cardiology, neurology, mental health, and dermatology. Telehealth has expanded to include many new applications such as physical therapy through digital monitoring tools and surgery done remotely using robots. The first major telehealth company, Teladoc, was founded in 2002 and since then the industry has grown to include companies such as Amwell, MeMD, and iCliniq.

References

  1. "ATA Teledermatology SIG". American Telemedicine Association. Archived from the original on 2 February 2007.
  2. Technology Brings Healthcare to Your Home. Medicwell