Introduction: An Overview
Telehealth is a term used to describe innovations in healthcare technology carried out using telecommunications devices. Remote technologies allow practitioners to provide medical services and patients to receive these services. Telehealth can provide basic care for many pathologies, making medical services more accessible for those patients who have limited mobility. Moreover, a specialist can give advice on self-regulation of the patient’s health.
Telehealth: Legal Issues
Before a provider of these services can access a patient, they must be licensed. This licensing is related to the state to which the specialist is attached but also to the state where the patient himself is located. For example, Florida has a law requiring all freelancers to register, but Florida professionals do not need a special license. In the event that the states border on each other, special licensing is not required for a specialist. There may also be instances where an out-of-state practitioner plays a secondary role to a telehealth provider who is in the same state as the patient. Covid restrictions have affected each state differently, and some states have been extended to prohibit practitioners from consulting patients from other states. Thus, the legal issues regarding telehealth services are quite complex and vary depending on state and interstate relationships.
Influence of Pandemic and Financial Issues
It is important to note that this area of resources was underdeveloped before the Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic has paradoxically served as an indirect factor in the rapid development of innovative remote technologies within telemedicine. Prior to the pandemic, access to remote medical services was significantly limited and not widely used. Usually, in the American health care system, the patient was forced to receive services from a doctor at his own expense, visiting him in person. Telehealth services have been limited in part because only in a small number of cases a patient could be offered a bill for receiving telehealth services, as the financial aspects of this system had not been worked out.
Ethical Issues: Medicaid
Telehealth was also not covered under the Medicare and Medicaid programs aimed at covering the health bills of low-income populations. As a result of the pandemic, American medicine has undergone an impressive transformation, becoming more mobile and giving the majority of people access to remote medical services. Thus, people got the opportunity to see a specialist or diagnostician remotely within the framework of the American healthcare financial ecosystem.
Coordination Issues as Ethical Issues
Most states currently provide telephone and web telehealth services, cover some degree of these services, and provide asynchronous telehealth services.
Another ethical problem is uncoordinated treatment, which may not take into account important nuances from the patient’s medical history. Also, the patient is significantly more limited in making decisions regarding his own treatment since in most cases, decisions are made not by a specialist but by an integrated computer model.
Technological Problems: Connection
The technological problem is a reliable connection to the Internet, which in rural America can be complicated. It should be remembered how problematic it was to maintain communication in the era of dial-up when it could take up to an hour to connect to the Web, which can be critical in a situation of health hazard. Also, an unstable Internet connection can interrupt contact with a medical specialist at a crucial or important moment, which is why healthcare services will not be provided with high quality.
The Department of Federal Communications, as part of the Covid-19 relief program, has created a telehealth program specifically related to the pandemic. The initiative spent $200 million on telehealth, and a particularly important manifestation of this intervention was the desire to provide all Americans with a stable Internet connection (TedxTalks, 2020). A separate problem here is certainly the extensive system of health care providers in America, as because of this, the responsibility assigned to them by the state is unevenly distributed. However, it is important to note that government money, as part of the pandemic, really went to provide Americans with a stable Internet connection in order to be able to receive remote assistance.
Data Capture and AI in Telehealth
One of the most valuable developments in this area is artificial intelligence technology, which facilitates the practice of physicists. With the help of this technology, it becomes possible to update the status of patients automatically and use remote patient tracking. Also, the use of AI in telemedicine can make it possible to send courier robots to deliver special medical supplies. The collection and organization of information in the field of telehealth is also extremely important, and the Internet of Things cloud service is the most advanced tool for this. The information collected by specialists is placed in this large cloud storage and subsequently used in patient management to facilitate work with organized data. Remote technologies that telemedicine uses are extremely valuable for those living in those areas where the state of medicine is deplorable and does not meet the needs of patients. Internet-based visits to the doctor involve online video conferencing technology, but patients are required to have all the necessary hardware and software.
Other Formats of Telehealth: Benefits
Another format for receiving telehealth services is the nurse’s telephone service, which results in patients receiving medical referrals by answering a systematic series of questions. Electronic technology also makes it possible to monitor the changing state of chronic patients constantly and at a distance using self-tests and automated recorder applications. From a financial standpoint, telehealth seems like a lucrative initiative as all consultations can take place remotely, which significantly reduces travel costs for both physicians and patients. With the help of a remote online connection, doctors can also devote time to more patients, which, however, may lower the quality of the services provided in the future. It is important, however, that remote technologies allow patients to maintain their lifestyle and quality of life since they do not have to change their time management in order to receive the service.
Telehealth and Education
This topic is also extremely important in the context of the education system and the provision of special health care services for children. A prime example of the benefits of telehealth in the context of a pandemic situation is the example of children with speech delays. Correcting this speech disorder is extremely important until a certain period in a child’s life when they need to go to school. That is, the services of a speech therapist should be provided immediately upon detection of an illness, which could be impossible in a lockdown situation. Telemedicine is able to solve this problem since the therapist can provide his services remotely. This is especially valuable because in the treatment of stuttering or other delays in speech, the child is not recommended to leave the usual home conditions because this is psychologically important for a successful cure. Thus, the educational potential of the telehealth system becomes more visible.
Conclusion
Thus, telehealth is currently one of the most promising and fastest-growing branches of medicine for a number of reasons. First, the situation of the pandemic has changed the conditions for visiting doctors across America and has created a need to adapt healthcare services and make them more flexible. Secondly, there are economic benefits of telemedicine, as travel costs are reduced and even people living in areas with poor healthcare get access to these services. Finally, with the help of these technologies, the needs of patients are better served since the doctor is able to permanently monitor their condition without taking them out of their natural habitat. Thus, despite a number of ethical and technical difficulties, telemedicine will develop and possibly overcome the legal and diagnostic problems sometimes associated with it.
References
Mayo Clinic Staff. (2022). Telehealth: Technology meets health care. Mayo Clinic. Web.
TedxTalks. (2020). Why innovative uses of telehealth should Be championed | Christine Zack | TEDxReno. [Video]. YouTube. Web.
Telehealth practice standards with emphasis on the United States: What telerehabilitation providers need to know. (n.d.). Nurse Key. Web.