Telemedicine: A Relief in the Pandemic crisis.

Tele” is a Greek word meaning “distance “and “mederi” is a Latin word meaning “to heal”. So, telemedicine is “healing by wire”. Although initially considered “futuristic” and “experimental,” telemedicine is today a reality and has come to stay.

Relevance of Telemedicine.

Telemedicine has a variety of applications in patient care, education, research, administration and public health. Worldwide, people living in rural and remote areas struggle to access timely, good-quality speciality medical care. Residents of these areas often have substandard access to speciality healthcare, primarily because specialist physicians are more likely to be located in areas of the concentrated urban population. We all know how difficult it can be to juggle multiple chores at home and then be prepared for work, deadlines, meetings and then travel to the doctor's clinic. Telemedicine has the potential to bridge this distance and facilitate healthcare.

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines Telemedicine as, “The delivery of healthcare services, where distance is a critical factor, by all healthcare professionals using information and communication technologies for the exchange of valid information for the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease and injuries, research and evaluation and for the continuing education of healthcare providers, all in the interests of advancing the health of individuals and their communities.”

The year 2020 will be an important year for the telemedicine industry. Health data is useful in many ways and one of them is AI (Artificial Intelligence). In future, this will help in identifying issues related to medical health. Through IOT (internet of things) perspective medical emergencies like Asthma attack, heart failure, diabetes, fertility can be monitored via connected devices.

Telemedicine-enabled devices such as the thermometer, torch, stethoscope, BP apparatus, ECG, glucometers, diagnostic testing etc. convert the patient’s location to a clinic. The diagnosis (provisional or final) is communicated to the patient electronically along with specific advice including a prescription.

Future of telemedicine.

The ‘future’ of Telemedicine started in December 2019. Worldwide Covid-19 is causing millions of people to try telemedicine for the first time. Telemedicine will continue to grow rapidly. Enforced habits of today will become the new normal. Life will never again be the same in the AC (After Corona) era. Gradually mandatory preferences of today will switch to a default mode. With technology becoming sophisticated and automated, doctors can do what they really want to do – spend more time with the patient – rather than spend time commuting, to go to their offices.

Patients too will now have more time, avoiding the hassles of travel, and waiting outside the doctor’s room. Virtual visits can make group care possible. Today considerable time is spent and effort has to be put in to get the opinion of multiple specialists sequentially. Imagine if all the specialists discuss various options with the patient together. Transparency at its highest.

This situation led the government to change the regulations around remote delivery of healthcare services and allow telemedicine via video, audio or text. With an increase in the incidence of lifestyle diseases and rising healthcare costs, there’s immense pressure on the traditional healthcare system. Innovative technologies are allowing health organizations to enhance the access and reduce the burden on hospitals through real-time consultation with doctors through smartphones, tablets, laptops or PCs.

India has a shortage of around estimated 600K doctors and 2 Mn nurses, as per reports last year.

• India only has one government doctor for every 1,139 people,

• The shortage of doctors is limiting face-to-face consultations among patients.

• India also has a shortage of hospital beds, which makes hospitalization tricky,

And there needs to be better facilities and infrastructure for cases where patients can be attended to via teleconsultation.

An Innovative breakthrough: Inito

A novel technology to help you to track your vital levels at the convenience of your home. The technology has gotten smaller, smarter and affordable over the years. But mostly, you need different devices for different tests. One for your blood sugar, one for fertility tests and so on. Bangalore based Startup - Inito has built a thumb-sized device which can do all of them.

Our first test is ‘Inito Fertility Monitor’, which lets one find up to six fertility days every cycle by measuring fertility hormones in urine. Inito works by measuring two fertility hormones estrogen and luteinizing hormone (LH) in the urine. The test is available through an app, a compact ‘reader’ and test strips. The smartphone’s camera captures the test strip’s reading, which typically changes colour based on the concentration of certain markers, depending on the test.

The Application automatically tells when to take the test. It also tells how to take the test- simple instructions like dip the strip in urine, insert it into the reader, etc. It takes just five minutes to give the results. Inito platform has the potential to carry out 30 different tests in a single device. This technology not only solves the problem of detecting the Vitals in minutes but also provides the convenience of testing your health parameters at home.

About Author :

Josephine Joseph

Lead Clinical Specialist at Inito (India's first Y-Combinator backed medical technology startup)