Videoconferencing is changing the landscape of business practices and operations and the healthcare industry is no exception. But what can videoconferencing do for the healthcare industry practitioners and patients?
Perhaps the biggest impact that videoconferencing can have in the healthcare industry is by changing the relationship between doctors and patients. Providing medical care at a distance using telecommunication technologies isnt a recent practice in fact telemedicine has been around for quite some time now though it never really caught on mainly because it was done over the telephone which was too impersonal and made it very difficult for medical practitioners to diagnose the patient.
Videoconferencing is changing telemedicine by allowing medical consultations over great distances. Telemedicine using video will allow patients in rural areas to access medical specialists and patients who cant leave their homes to consult with their doctors. Videoconferencing systems are being deployed in hospitals and clinics all over the United States. As an example when the University of Washington recently used videoconferencing to extend treatment to patients diagnosed with depression the result was that the patients benefited from the extra sessions and the University saved $3300.
Videoconferecing is also very useful in medical research because it allows several researchers and organizations from separate geographic regions to work together on a specific project. It also allows medical practitioners to trade opinions with specialists on the other side of the world and speeds up the recruiting process by allowing candidates to be initially screened without the necessity to meet each one in person.
It can also be groundbreaking as a training tool. As electronic medical records become more and more common in the healthcare industry it is also very important to train the medical staff to use them properly. Videoconferencing can be used to allow trainees to attend remote sessions without spending time and money on dislocations because they can be attended them from anywhere. It also allows for the training sessions to be recorded for future reference.
It can also be used in the context of continuing medical education which refers to the training designed to keep medical practitioners up to date with medical developments and practices. Physicians can attend training without leaving their offices saving time for their patients and without the worry of having to accommodate their busy schedules to the training.
In healthcare time is of the essence. Video conferencing allows saving time and maximizes communication between medical practitioners doctors and patients and researchers. Video conferencing solutions like RHUBs appliance arent just changing the healthcare theyre improving it.