“As the pandemic forces doctors to turn to online solutions, many healthcare providers say they now see their advantages.”

“Caitlin Powers sits in the living room of her Brooklyn apartment in New York, and has a telemedicine video conference with her physician, Dr Deborah Mulligan.” – [Mark Lennihan/AP Photo]

by Christine Nguyen

“When Dr Mythili Krishnamurthy, an obstetrician/gynaecologist in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, got her patient’s message on WhatsApp about breast pain and a fever, she was confined to her home, like the rest of India, which had been on lockdown since March 25 due to the coronavirus pandemic. But the lockdown did not stop her from managing the patient’s care.

“Doctors, like Krishnamurthy, are doing ‘house calls’ again – but now, they are in the form of telemedicine visits. Telemedicine refers to remote care, including real-time video and app-based visits. Because of the public health crisis, a profession wary of accepting telemedicine has turned to it overnight.

“Media touts telemedicine’s value as a way to triage suspected COVID-19 patients, but telemedicine is not just a useful temporary stopgap, healthcare professionals say. It allows doctors to see patients with a range of problems and can improve patient care. Once doctors and patients use it, it is unlikely they will stop.”

Read this article in its entirety at Al Jazeera, click here.

The Lancaster County Link partners’ cross-training meeting is about telemedicine at Veterans Affairs.

“May 21 – VIRTUAL ZOOM CROSS-TRAINING meeting – Jessica Lehman, Veteran Affairs Medical Center- Lebanon, VA’s Health Initiative – Telehealth