What is telemedicine?
Telemedizin - Fernbehandlung von Bluthochdruck?
This includes, among other things:
- Transferring medical images between centers for medical care;
- Teleconsultation with specialists;
- Remote diagnosis by a doctor who is not near the patient, such as the specialists consulted via teleconsultation through remote monitoring;
- Telemonitoring of a patient who is not in the hospital;
- Home monitoring through remote care, which also allows the use of remote monitoring data; and
- Tele-education for patients or healthcare professionals.
For patients in everyday life, the options you can use from home are probably the most important.
It is now possible, after a Heart attack or Stroke, to send data from an implanted device or from a continuously worn vest directly from home to the doctor or service provider. This way, a patient's data can be monitored at home over the long term without the patient having to be in the hospital. That can help reduce the risk of a repeat event, such as a stroke, heart attack, or something similar.
Telemedical follow-up is more routinely used for patients with high blood pressure or diabetes: the values patients measure at home with the appropriate devices are sent to the treating physician and can be used for the patient's care.
Even easier is the option to consult your own GP online. Care is provided without physical contact. The doctor is contacted over the internet, and the consultation takes place via a video appointment, by phone, or in writing via chat.
Online or video appointments proved to be a very useful and practical form of patient care during the COVID-19 pandemic. The main goal was to avoid infection.
However, video appointments have also been shown to reduce the workload for practices and ease things for patients. Sick patients can avoid the trip to the practice and the waiting time there. Practices can avoid unnecessary visits as well. Issues like extending a sick note, requesting follow-up prescriptions, or questions about ongoing symptoms can be handled more quickly this way.
Online interaction with doctors also makes it possible to get opinions from distant specialists without having to travel to them.
For a while, it was possible to have simple illnesses treated by tele-doctors and to get follow-up prescriptions or sick notes issued. In Germany, this has since been heavily restricted, which is why well-known providers have withdrawn from the German market.
Sources:
This article comes from BloodPressureDB – the leading app since 2011 that helps hundreds of thousands monitor their blood pressure every day.
Our content is based on carefully researched, evidence-based data and is continuously updated (as of 06/2024).
Author Sabine Croci is a qualified medical assistant with many years of experience in internal medicine and cardiology practices as well as in outpatient care, and has led BloodPressureDB's specialist editorial team since 2015. Thanks to her extensive additional qualifications as a paramedic, first responder and in various therapy and emergency areas, she provides solid, practical and reliably reviewed information.
Author Sabine Croci is a qualified medical assistant with many years of experience in internal medicine and cardiology practices as well as in outpatient care, and has led BloodPressureDB's specialist editorial team since 2015. Thanks to her extensive additional qualifications as a paramedic, first responder and in various therapy and emergency areas, she provides solid, practical and reliably reviewed information.
