Telemedicine

 
    Telemedicine is becoming very popular when it comes to health care, not only does the internet give patients access to medical terminology it also give doctors access to patients that are unable to make it in to be seen. When thinking about the internet there are advantages and disadvantages that one might see concerning the internet. What might the impact be on the consumers if we became a telemedicine world? What will be the financial impact for both short and long term when dealing with telemedicine? Technology is always improving, what types of improvements might be made to this new type of medical care?

Telemedicine
    Telemedicine is “the use of telecommunications technology to provide, enhance, or expedite health care service.” (Answers.com) Let’s say that you are in an emergency room with a broken leg, and have had prior fractures or breaks to the same leg, doctors will have access to your past x-rays and exams in order to better treat you, using telemedicine. Psychiatrist such as “Jill Afrin, MD,[who is] an American Sign Language fluent psychiatrist,” uses telemedicine to treat some of her deaf or hearing impaired patients. This not only cuts back on her travel time but increases the amount of patients she is able to care for.(Luo,¶2) Schizophrenia patients seemed to be more satisfied with the video conferencing evaluation rather than the face-to-face evaluations. The BPRS or Brief Psychiatric Rating scale, and the SAPS or Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms, “score were the same as if the patient was seen in person.” (Luo,¶3) However the score for the SANS Scale for the Assessment for Negative Symptoms did not equal the same as in live person if using a low quality session.

Advantages
    When dealing with any new technology one might discover some advantages and disadvantages to using the new technology over the old ways. Dealing with telemedicine one is going to find both. Time management is an advantage one might have when...