Telemedicine is set to revolutionize the medical marketing and tourism business. It’s a whole new world to explore and it’s constantly changing. We’ll explore here how it’s impacting this field.

What is telemedicine?

As per the World Health Organization (WHO), telemedicine is the ability to deliver health care when distance is an obstacle. Health care professionals are able to use communication and information technology to be able to give a diagnosis, treatment, and help prevent diseases all from a distance. This health care practice is not meant to replace the face to face consultations, however. It’s meant to be used complementarily to that practice, so that all people can get timely access to health care and the diagnosis and treatment they need even if they live in more remote places.

Using telemedicine should be done when you have all of the necessary items, which means a device to communicate (a computer with webcam and a Wi-Fi connection), the means to communicate (whether that’s a website, a telephone, email, or video conferencing), a standards and interoperability information protocol (which means the capacity for two systems or more to exchange and use shared information) and be located in a hospital or clinic. This service is being used in many countries already, like Canada, India, U.S., Australia, and more. The purpose of these trials is for telediagnostics and teleconsultations, teleassistance, telemonitoring, and even telesurgery.

Advantages and disadvantages

Like with any technological or medical advance, telemedicine has a lot of different advantages, including improving access to medical services, efficiency and speed of treatment, allowing clinics or hospitals to lower their costs while giving patients shorter wait times. There is also a lot better connection and communication between the patient and doctor. It’s a major advantage for medical tourism and medical education because there’s a lot more content and quality for both clients and health care professionals.

There are also some disadvantages associated with this method, including the lack of physical contact, the possibly impersonal feel of the communication, and the sense of uncertainty that a patient could feel when they can’t see the doctor in person. Although the service is fast and efficient, it can’t be 24/7 because the doctor is not always connected. It can also be difficult for a physician to consult a patient that’s not face to face and be as confident of the protocol for each case.

It’s important to maintain the patient’s health care rights and respect them always. If you’re looking to roll out telemedicine, you should familiarize yourself with the legislation surrounding patient data and data protection, in each country you’re providing a telemedicine service. You should consult with a professional in the field that can make sure you have the right advice so your business is protected from any events.

Telemedicine’s challenges today

There are a few challenges that telemedicine faces that are preventing it from completely being rolled out. That’s mainly down to inconsistencies in the connections between the devices, the difficulties of getting a virtual diagnostic paired with an immediate treatment plan, and the legal obstacles around implementing it.

Telemedicine and your practice

Telemedicine is poised to impact the medical tourism and medical marketing fields. Clients can look online, find information about certain symptoms and illnesses, doctors and hospitals, and more, which has the potential to expose your business to new clients. By sharing information on your site and social platforms, you can create confidence from users and clients.

You should start building your webpage to be able to give the right experience to your users, meaning a lot of visuals, making it search engine friendly, and capturing the attention of your clients through practical and engaging information. Your image and your website reflects your whole brand and reputation, so even something that’s online has to be prioritized as much as your face to face interactions. Take the time to explore if telemedicine is a technology that could help you improve your business and where are the gaps you could fill with this development.

Michael Dehoyos is a content marketer and editor at Phd Kingdom and Academic brits. He assists companies in their marketing strategy concepts, and contributes to numerous sites and publications. Also, he is a writer at OriginWritings.