Digital technologies are quickly developing nowadays, and our life has changed greatly with the help of it. Today no one can not imagine life without the Internet: online shopping, online booking, online studying - all this are ordinary things to us. In Europe many people do not even remember when they went shopping last. Moreover, all administrative issues, such as fines and taxes are also paid on the Internet. Digital revolution has influenced medicine as well. The Internet is used for the following in the sphere of medicine:
- The second opinion (additional consultation of a foreign specialist),
- Online appointments to doctors, booking a ward,
- Online pharmacy,
- Telemedicine.
The first three items are quite clear to everyone, but the word Telemedicine leaves lots of questions. In fact, telemedicine is a medical consultation from a distance, and nothing else. However, as it often happens, any innovation or a little-known term is a good opportunity for speculation and for cashing in with the help of gullible patients.
Telemedicine as a new type of business.
At first sight, it is quite clear that telemedicine is just a common remote consultation, in other words - the second opinion, but in no way treatment online. Nevertheless, patients, which are too concerned with their or their relatives’ health, can not always adequately assess what is happening because of the fear of death. They take up all possibilities, sometimes even the most absurd ones. So-called "Health sellers" take advantage of this and offer all kinds of wonder drugs, and wonder treatments. This is quite typical for post-Soviet countries.
There is nothing difficult in renaming most common surgeries or procedures and selling it as something unique and innovative much more expensive. The typical patient most often does not understand anything, and it is very easy to deceive him. The same concerns telemedicine. The term sounds quite tempting, and so-called "medical businessmen" promise that all diseases can be cured without direct contact between the doctor and the patient. Isn’t it a miracle? ... It resembles the Soviet period when the healer empower water with medicinal properties via the TV, and millions of viewers believed it and "were treated". Now it seems ridiculous, but many people still trust it.
Doctor-patient communication as an indispensable component of successful treatment.
Robotic medicine allows a doctor to operate on a patient without touching him. Accordingly, it means that a doctor can conduct surgery from anywhere in the world. Thus, remote treatment seems quite real.
NOTE. The world's first remote surgery was performed in 2001, during which a surgeon from New York operated on a patient who was in France, using the robotic system of Zeus.
It is worth noting that even now, when medicine has advanced considerably, many surgeons speak ill of medical robotic systems, such as Da Vinci, for example. Despite the benefits, surgeons consider the absence of direct contact between the doctor and the patient one of the main disadvantages of this robot. However, we should mind the fact that the doctor and the patient are in the same room during the surgery.
Undoubtedly, that a doctor relies on lab results and symptoms while diagnosing and prescribing treatment, but experience and intuition also play a significant role. Very often intuition comes with experience, but some doctors have an inborn medical flair, and these are doctors whom we call “Heaven-born doctors”. This flair works when the doctor carefully examines his patient, communicates with him, has the opportunity to touch him. Telemedicine is deprived of it.
Sometimes it happens that Telemedicine is really needed. Let’s take, for example, France, where such a thing as a medical desert is quite common. The medical desert is a shortage of doctors, especially in small villages with a small number of residents. And Telemedicine is the solution to this problem. It is obvious, that it does not deal with diagnosing complex illnesses and with prescribing complex treatments. It is rather a consultation with a medical specialist who just makes decisions, such as the possibility of remote supervision of the patient or the necessity of the appointment with a doctor.
Thus, telemedicine is useful only if the patient clearly understands what it really is, and does not expect a miracle.
If you want to ask for a diagnosis or a confirmation of the diagnosis, for possible treatment options you can consult a French medical specialist. The approximate price of such consultation on Medifrance Solution website is 400 euros. This medical company cooperates only with highly professional doctors who are rather experienced in remote consulting.
