Telehealth

Telehealth is the use of digital information and communication technologies to access health care services remotely and manage your health care. Technologies can include computers and mobile devices, such as tablets and smartphones. This may be technology you use from home. Or a nurse or other health care professional may provide telehealth from a medical office or mobile van, such as in rural areas. Telehealth can also be technology that your health care provider uses to improve or support health care services.

The goals of telehealth, sometimes called e-health or m-health (mobile health), include the following:

• Make health care easier to get for people who live in communities that are remote or in the country.
• Keep you and others safe if you have an infectious disease such as COVID-19.
• Offer primary care for many conditions.
• Make services more easily offered or handy for people who have limited ability to move, time or transportation.
• Offer access to medical specialists.
• Improve communication and coordination of care among health care team members and a person getting care.
• Offer advice for self-management of health care.

Many people found telehealth helpful during the COVID-19 pandemic and still use it. Telehealth is being used more often.

How can telehealth technologies improve medical care?

• Teleconsultations allow a physician in a remote area to receive advice from a specialist at a distant location about special or complex patient conditions. Such consultations can be as simple as a phone call. Increasingly, they involve sophisticated sharing of medical information such as CT, MRI or ultrasound scans. These images can be taken by the local physician, incorporated into an electronic medical record and sent to the specialist for diagnosis and treatment recommendations.
• Remote patient monitoring (RPM) enables patient monitoring outside of clinical settings, such as in the home. Patients use or wear sensors that wirelessly collect and transmit physiological data to health professionals. RPM can significantly improve an individual’s quality of life. For example, in diabetes management, the real-time transmission of blood glucose readings enables healthcare providers to intervene when needed and avoid acute events and hospitalizations.
• Telehomecare provides the remote care needed to allow people with chronic conditions, dementia, or those at high risk of falling to remain living in their own homes. The approach focuses on reacting to emergency events and raising a help response quickly. Sensors monitor changes in chronic conditions as well as other risks including floods, fires, and gas leaks. Sensors can also alert caregivers if a person with dementia leaves the house. When a sensor is activated, a monitoring center is alerted to take appropriate action such as contacting a caregiver or sending emergency services.
• Point-of-care (POC) medicine relies on diagnostic devices that can perform at the time and place of patient care, which includes at home, in doctor’s offices and clinics, and in remote areas without electricity or laboratory equipment. POC devices can detect micronutrient deficiencies, anemia, infectious agents, and even some cancers. Combined with telehealth, POC technologies allow health care workers to test patients and rapidly obtain results without the need for a complex laboratory setting which can result in significant cost-reduction.

What are the benefits of telehealth?

Having a telehealth visit is just like a regular visit, but you are in one place and your health care provider is in another. While you may need to see your health care provider in person sometimes, telehealth has many benefits.

• It keeps you and others from getting sick by being close to each other.
• You can see your health care provider anywhere: home, work, or even your car.
• It saves time because you don’t need to travel, take time off, or find someone to watch your kids.
• You may get an appointment faster.
• You have more choices. You can have a visit with a health care provider who may be far from you.

Telehealth may not be right for everyone or every health care condition. Always talk to your health care provider if you have questions or concerns.

The limitations of telehealth

Telehealth has potential for better coordinated care. But it also runs the risk of gaps in care, overuse of medical care, inappropriate drug use or unnecessary care. Providers can't do a physical exam in-person, which can affect a diagnosis.

The potential benefits of telehealth services may be limited by other factors, such as costs. Insurance reimbursement for telehealth can vary by state and type of insurance in the U.S. But insurance keeps expanding for telehealth services in the U.S. And during the COVID-19 pandemic, insurance restrictions changed for a period of time. Check with your insurance company to see which providers have virtual visits covered by insurance.

Also, some people who need improved access to care may be limited because of not having internet access or a mobile device. People without internet access may be able to access telehealth services by using wireless internet offered at public places. For example, libraries or community centers may offer wireless internet for virtual visits that can take place in private rooms.

Sometimes technology doesn't work well. It's important to have a plan with your provider to call them by phone if there is an issue with the virtual visit.