What is Telehealth and why is its use necessary in the field of medical tourism? By providing extensive patient security and care through communication, the medical tourism industry and healthcare providers, along with Debson Medical Tourism, have discovered the benefits of Telehealth and its role in raising the competition.
If you were to research the definitions and meaning of the words “Telehealth” and “Telemedicine”, you would literally be bombarded with almost 30 definitions. We present some of those definitions below as an introduction to highlighting how the use of technology can be a real advantage in global health.
Telemedicine can be described as the use of medical information exchanged from one site to another via electronic communications for the health and education of the patient or healthcare provider and for the purpose of improving patient care. Telemedicine includes consultative, diagnostic, and treatment services, according to Medterms.com
The term telemedicine derives from the Greek “tele” meaning at a distance and the present word medicine that itself derives from the Latin “mederi” meaning healing, as stated by www.advcomms.co.uk.
Moreover, the European Commission’s health care telematics program defines telemedicine as:
"rapid access to shared and remote medical expertise by means of telecommunications and information technologies, no matter where the patient or relevant information is located."
Wikipedia states that Telehealth is the delivery of health-related services and information via telecommunications technologies. Telehealth delivery could be as simple as two health professionals discussing a case over the telephone, or as sophisticated as using videoconferencing between providers at facilities in two countries, or even as complex as robotic technology.
Telehealth is an expansion of telemedicine. Unlike telemedicine, which more narrowly focuses on the curative aspects, it encompasses preventive and curative aspects.
Debson Medical Tourism describes Telehealth as the remote provision of health and healthcare services through videoconferencing and electronic monitoring technologies.
Like many developments in the healthcare industry, the use of technology to bridge distance was born out of necessity. Gradually, the use of technology where distance is a factor has become widespread and has grown as the need has increased. For many different reasons, such as being able to deliver quality healthcare to remote residents and to do so cost effectively and profitably if possible, has caused the use of technology to prosper.
**Note that the definitions that were selected for this article make reference to Telehealth as a more robust use of technology in comparison to that of telemedicine.
Debson Medical Tourism refers to Telehealth as the use of specific technology. However, note that all the definitions make reference to the ability to deliver healthcare and healthcare services, to administer medicine or to communicate health information from one location to another.
These uses are all standard health uses, adopted by numerous healthcare organizations as they seek to deliver the healthcare that they are responsible for. In today’s world, with the development of global health into a competitive industry and the growing awareness of medical tourism, Telehealth should be viewed not only as a healthcare tool, but also as a competitive advantage for those that are capable of using it effectively.
The ability of a Telehealth advocate to transition its use from one of standard use to one of exceptional use is one way to acquire a competitive advantage. One example of a standard use of Telehealth is that a physician can use email to communicate with his or her patients. In such an example, a physician would use email to deliver test results to a patient.
In an exceptional use of email as a Telehealth tool, a physician would send drug prescriptions to the patient’s pharmacy for fulfillment, or deliver pregnancy practices advice to a pregnant patient. The difference here is that the exceptional use of the email is to enhance the healthcare service, in the favor of the patient. This is a very important aspect to note as we proceed in our analysis of Telehealth as a distinctive competence in the healthcare market.
At Debson Medical Tourism, we work backwards from our motto that “the patients’ health is paramount”, in deriving our use of Telehealth as a competitive tool. Basically, this tagline communicates that our philosophies, beliefs and practices are in the best interest of the patient. This has not only served us well as we enter the global health arena of medical tourism, but has enabled us to differentiate ourselves from the competition.
Safety has been identified as the number one concern of patient travelers. Healthcare suppliers seeking to attract international patients have addressed this concern in various ways. One of the ways is through the development of healthcare quality, which is used as a competitive tool amongst healthcare suppliers. These groups have attained quality accreditation(s), while even more have developed more meticulous record keeping in order providing evidence-based quality measures.
Whereas the use of accreditation increases the quality measurement of the actual procedures themselves, the issues of pre- and post-surgical care has not been as directly addressed.
We are aware that records are routinely transported from one physician to another when needed. For example, when a patient changes physicians or when a primary care physician refers a patient to a specialist physician.
Having been involved in the healthcare industry as we have been for the past number of years, the transfer of records can involve a myriad of potential pitfalls. These pitfalls range from incomplete transportation of records to incomplete interpretation of records.
The proper use of Telehealth to enable physician-to-physician or healthcare professional-to-healthcare professional discussion of patient records helps to erase any pre-surgical concerns. Through the use of Telehealth, such as video conferencing, the patient is assured that both the attending physician and the prospective physician both have the necessary information.
The patient is then assured because both parties have discussed and reviewed the information, and there is documentation through the video conferencing to verify.
So, in one fell swoop, Telehealth has now become, in this example, a tool that benefits the patient and, by our analysis, a competitive tool for the advocates and users of the technology.
Furthermore, the factors that overcome the safety concern during the pre-surgical phase, does not have to be video conferencing. It can be any communication that includes a validation process. An example would be a transfer of records with an audit list of all the contents, which can be checked off upon receipt by the prospective healthcare organization. Of course, the more detailed the communication and all associated records, the better for the patient.
We have now created an environment where Telehealth competitors can provide services in the patients’ best interest that will attract more healthcare business for them.
Aftercare is another much-discussed concern of prospective patients. With questions regarding the provider, the cost and the effectiveness of care, patients’ are sometimes left in the dark. Through the introduction of telehealth, the process enables communication of patient information to improve the quality of healthcare to the patient. If this use of telehealth is incorporated into the patient planning phase it becomes even more effective.
Finally, the pricing of global healthcare is a major attraction of medical tourism. The pricing step enables competing destinations to offer their own brand of savings to the prospective patient and payer. During this step, employers, insurance companies and government agencies will strongly scrutinize the quality of healthcare by scrutinizing the price components. They will be able to differentiate low cost-low quality offerings from other, perhaps more costly options. But it is during this phase that a Telehealth provider is able to improve the safety factor of their service, even at an additional cost. The employers will ask for every little detail of the process that their employees are going to be exposed to.
In our opinion, Telehealth is a competitive advantage, not something that is simply nice to have. It actually differentiates the provider from those options that do not include it. In addition, the inclusion of the specific Telehealth services in a medical travel plan also can serve to differentiate amongst the different Telehealth providers, to the advantage of the provider with the best value-cost proposition. Make your patients’ health paramount by using a facilitator that incorporates Telehealth into its service menu.
With over 17 years experience in Insurance, Marketing and Employee Benefits Management, Alex Piper possesses extensive knowledge of the U.S. Healthcare Market and the influence that Insurance Carriers, U.S. Employers, Hospitals, Physicians, Physician Groups, Healthcare Professional Organizations and Government will have on the next generation of global healthcare. He is President of OneWorld Global Healthcare Solutions, Inc., a consulting company for employers, governments, insurance companies, and foreign-based hospitals and healthcare facilities. OneWorld is committed to creating a worldwide healthcare solution.
Debson Medical Tourism is a Montreal, Canada-based medical tourism company dedicated to guiding its clients towards excellent healthcare choices. Debson’s leadership and management team includes experts in medicine, nursing, surgery, telehealth and business administration. The Debson advantage builds trust, belief, loyalty and devotion with clients through simplicity and transparency in pricing, quality, safety and security. The company’s foundation consists of meticulous oversight of its network of physicians and hospitals, and its attention to optimal pre- and post-care support using telehealth to compliment its services.
