The usage and popularity of telehealth have seen a phenomenal increase of 6,000% in recent years. Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, both patients and healthcare practices switched drastically to video consultations, virtual visits, and e-medicines from conventional office care. With an aim to reduce infection rates, the shift significantly contributed to the widespread use of telehealth in the present day.
How Is Telehealth Beneficial For Patients, Particularly Women?
Apart from being risk-free, video consultations & visits offer multiple benefits to patients. These include flexible appointments (you can make an appointment when you want), no need to travel, no paper gowns, and no waiting in the queue. In metropolitan cities like Bangalore, many renowned hospitals have started offering video consultations to patients. Healthcare providers like Kinder Hospitals are taking the telehealth concept a step further by bringing video consultation to women’s healthcare. From providing patients with complete support to making healthcare accessible to remote areas, it’s quite clear we’ve struck a balance between patient satisfaction and the need for telehealth visits.
Telehealth and Women’s Healthcare – How Are Both Connected?
Other than the shift of traditional healthcare to virtual platforms, the scope of Direct to Consumer (D2C) Telehealth services has exponentially grown, especially in the area of women’s health.
These companies are all about connecting healthcare practices with people via their websites, apps, or third-party platforms. There is no need for a patient to have a relationship with an existing health system or referral. These days, even some employers offer such covered benefits under their packages to ensure the health of their teams. While virtual care is gaining popularity, the most favorable section is women. It is comparatively more challenging for women to commute, plan, and manage healthcare visits. Thanks to telehealth, they can now instantly connect with a reliable healthcare provider for everything. From birth control and mental health to lactation support, and pregnancy care – more women are now switching to video consultation and virtual visits.
Also, there’s no doubt women are controlling the majority of healthcare spending. They are more likely to visit a doctor than men, making telehealth a potential opportunity for investment. Hence the growth curve.
Major Benefits of Telehealth & Video Consultation In Women’s Healthcare
Telehealth is basically the term used for providing remote health services. This may involve advice, education, diagnosis, intervention, monitoring, reminders, and remote admissions. It further includes the use of communication and information technologies to convey data, images, voice, and information to make health services accessible, over short and long distances without needing to move recipients or healthcare professionals.
After its advent in the 1950s, the latest technological advancements and improvements have made it a more viable and beneficial option for women’s healthcare and overall medical care in general.
Here are the technological enhancements that have helped make telehealth more affordable & accessible:
● Internet
● Standardization
● Storage capacity
● Memory
● Availability through online security & backup servers
● Development of cloud technology, mobile apps, and virtual servers
● Digitization of data
● Use of existing computing devices
All these factors have altogether made telemedicine a more convincing option for healthcare.
Faster
Telemedicine aims to make healthcare for women and other patients more efficient, faster, and accessible. One can access experts from anywhere as and when needed. Online appointments, virtual visits, and video consultations are becoming more common than ever.
More Affordable
There is no doubt in saying telemedicine is comparatively less expensive. The majority of healthcare providers keep their fees affordable to make the services accessible to even remote patients and patients of all backgrounds.
Flexible
As women are more socially responsible and occupied with multiple things at a time, telehealth makes healthcare more flexible and convenient for them. They can arrange the audio or video consultation at their comfortable time or day without having to compromise their health.
Convenient
Virtual care is more time-saving and comfortable, particularly for women as they are the caregivers, a historically female role. With no need to travel or step out of time at different times or depend on others to help them commute, women can access video consultations in minutes to look after their health in a better way.
The Bottom Line
The progression of telehealth has the potential of making a lasting impact in the realm of women’s healthcare. The increasing availability of telemedicine and technology holds the power to enable fewer in-person medical visits for healthy patients. This can ultimately help improve the accessibility of health care to people, especially women, who are otherwise not able to manage their health because of commute, time, dependency, and other factors. If you are also looking for video consultations for women’s healthcare in Bangalore or nearby cities, Kinder Hospitals is your go-to health partner. Experience video-assisted consultations from experts in child and women care for uncompromised service and peace of mind.