Telehealth: Dr. Zoom Will See You Now.

Let’s begin by defining the key term of this post, telehealth, which is the use of communication technologies to provide health care from a distance. And by defining the secondary term, Zoom, which is a video-conferencing software app that has become wildly popular in our current COVID world.

Aside from telehealth use, Zoom is also used for remote work conferences, education, baseball booster meetings, and social gatherings like wine tastings, book clubs and gender reveal parties. Essentially, any kind of meeting you can think of that COVID (or distance) has forced us to conduct remotely.

As you might have guessed, this post discusses how communication technologies (like Zoom, Skype, cell phones, laptops, iPad) and the initial need for social distancing have changed health care. Telehealth was around long before COVID destroyed the normalcy of our lives 10 months ago. The virus, among other things, increased its use exponentially and brought it into just about all our homes.

Look at it this way, decades ago, many doctors physically came into homes in the form of house calls. By the early 20^th century, most had access to their doctors through the telephone. Had a non-emergency medical question?…pick up the phone and give Dr. Smith’s office a call. Now, doctors and other health care professionals (HCP) can enter your home via a screen, a video phone call, if you will. As time marches on and technology improves, things change.

Fear not, telehealth is NOT here to replace the traditional visit to the doctor. Look at telehealth as a supplement to a doctor’s visit, something that makes your life and the HCP’s life easier, more productive and efficient. Telehealth is so much more than just talking with your doctor. It allows you to talk with an HCP regarding non-emergency matters and ask follow-up questions about symptoms, treatments, prescriptions and other issues.

It also allows HCPs to monitor vital signs, such as heart rate, blood pressure and glucose levels, through wearable devices that transmit the data straight to their office. In this regard, telehealth is very much a two-way street with information and health data traveling from patient to HCP and vice versa.

Telehealth is most often divided into three categories when it comes to patient-HCP interaction. The first is synchronous which means live, real-time conferencing with a single HCP or several simultaneously, to include, if necessary, specialists that work hundreds of miles from your location.

The next category of telehealth is asynchronous, sometimes known as “store and forward” as stored medical information (like blood glucose) is stored over time and then forwarded to your doctor’s office. Last is remote patient monitoring whereby a patient’s vitals are monitored remotely by an HCP, to include heart and/or breathing rate, blood pressure, or blood oxygen level.

Most health care systems now have what is called a “patient portal” which serves as a gatekeeper of sorts. It facilitates the initial communication between patient and HCP to determine what’s the next best course of action, one of which might be a telehealth Zoom meeting with an HCP or an in-person visit. If that’s the case, here are a few things to think about prior to logging in…(you knew I couldn’t go a post without a bullet list).

• Conduct your meeting in a private location with good lighting and no distractions such as kids, pets, or back-seat spouses.
• Review any and all communications (emails, etc.) from your doctor’s office regarding the reason for your meeting.
• Write down all questions and concerns you might have for your HCP ahead of time.
• Have a notepad on-hand to write down important information your HCP might impart.
• If you can, record the teleconference so that you can watch it again if necessary.
• Close all other apps that might be running on your device.
• Wear comfortable clothing that is easy to remove if your HCP needs to see a specific part of your body.

Telehealth is not the future of healthcare, it is here already, widely in use and should be embraced rather than feared or criticized. It helps people stay safe, saves time, and supplements traditional healthcare in numerous beneficial ways. Just do not call your HCP Dr. Zoom unless that’s his/her actual name.