Telemedicine and Medication Adherence will be only as far away at your Smartphone.
Everyone knows that the cost of medicine is going up. We know it as patients, The Health Insurance companies know it, Hospital Administrators know it, Pharmacies know it. This is an issue in Third World countries as well. How can this work to everyone’s advantage? I believe that healthcare will come to us through our Smartphones. It already is through companies like Medtexter, used to remind patients to take their prescriptions on time via their smartphones.
In Singapore they are using a bus, dressed up as a traveling healthcare center which is dispatched to the doorsteps of patients with Chronic Diseases. The Community Health Centre is a 24 seat bus retrofitted with medical equipment that is used for testing and screening. In a sense, it’s a mobile triage center, handling issues in the field and only making appointments to visit the hospital as needed.
TruClinic is a web-based service that works with Arches Health in Salt Lake City. These two companies, working together, create a telemedicine channel for patients that need services such as telephone consultations, group visits and other preventative services.
Interestingly, these telemed services are not typically covered under health care policies and need to be paid by the individuals who are using the services in most cases. In many cases it’s just another way for patients to interface with the medical community for the benefit getting the access to treatment that they require. I believe that this is where medical services for individuals is going. People are just going to have to pay a little bit of money for these services which they will most likely find are great value for the benefits they will receive. This may wind up being the best value for healthcare that patients receive. You’re likely to get better information for less cost over time.
Patients are finding that their own healthcare is much better when they are involved with managing it. When compared to the past generations of people to sit in the waiting room for long periods of time just to see the doctor for maybe 8 minutes, this seems to be a better way. It takes a ton of time out of your day, they give you a bill for possibly hundreds of dollars and your health care company MAY reimburse your for some of it. Yikes… this is a bad model for everyone including your doctors.
Your first step is to manage your own medication adherence with Medtexter. You’ve got to be in charge of your own health. You can order a pizza or a shredder or taxi from your smartphone. Now you can pretty much manage most aspects of your healthcare from your smart phone too. It seems the best way to get your medical services for less money
