50+ Lifestyles

Telemedicine ­– An Innovative Method of Patient Care

By Catherine Fant, PhD, RN
Graduate Faculty Member
Kaplan University School of Nursing

The 80 year old woman has been living in her house for nearly 50 years and is recently widowed. She wants to stay living in her home.  While she’s in good physical condition, her blood pressure and other vital signs need to be monitored several times a week, and she just doesn’t have the energy or the money to visit the doctor’s office that often.

The good news is, that she doesn’t have to, thanks to the increasing availability of telemedicine. With medical care
provided through live two-way Internet video, she can be taken care of by nurses in the comfort of her living room.

Telemedicine has been a game-changer for several, including the elderly, people living in remote areas, and those in developing communities that don’t have adequate health care options. Using technology, these patients can now have care delivered by doctors and nurses who may not even be in the same state, and potentially at lower costs than an office visit.

Telemedicine is expected to grow exponentially as more people get access to those devices and is expected to result in increased savings for patients and insurers. Telemedicine has the potential to decrease emergency room visits and hospitalizations because medical issues can be monitored and treated on a regular basis—before they get severe. It has also streamlined the process for nurses, allowing them to take care of more patients, more frequently.

As the use of telemedicine grows, there are standards or policy that will evolve from questions in the market in order to standardize the process and alleviate concerns or skepticism.  How will health insurance coverage work for telemedicine consultations? What are the standards of online care? Will a virtual patient-nurse relationship ever be as comprehensive as an in-person visit? And can an Internet-based service ever be fully confidential?

Despite some initial challenges, it’s clear that the promise of telemedicine is great, especially for patients with limited mobility or living in remote and otherwise underserved areas.

Catherine Fant is a full-time faculty member at Kaplan University. The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not represent the view of Kaplan University.