The Advantages and Disadvantages of Telemedicine

Telemedicine provides an excellent online healthcare service for those who would like to enjoy the conveniences of getting their medicines delivered to their house instead of going to the pharmacy every time they want to buy some medicines. Aside from the convenience factor, there are many other reasons for you to consider the use of telemedicine, such as the ease of getting online prescriptions for your health conditions, so that you don’t need to wait in queues to get your medicines.

With various benefits that telemedicine can offer, it might become a preferred method for people to get the right healthcare treatments for their conditions and get their medicines as soon as possible. Telemedicine can give both the healthcare professionals and the patients various advantages. However, there are some disadvantages that you need to know about telemedicine. In this guide, you will learn about the advantages and disadvantages of telemedicine.

Advantages of Telemedicine for Healthcare Professionals

With telemedicine, healthcare professionals don’t need to worry about their patients not being able to make a trip to their healthcare facility or the nearest pharmacy to get their medicines. Telemedicine can track the use of medicines of their patients, making it even easier for the healthcare professionals to monitor the patient’s conditions. Aside from that, it can also help improve patient engagement.

Also, with telemedicine, healthcare professionals can prescribe the right medicine to their patients via the telemedicine app and link their prescription with the online medicine delivery system. So, the patients don’t need to go to any pharmacy to get their medicine. Instead, they can click on the online prescription and order the medicines right away via the telemedicine app. It makes it easier for the healthcare professionals to monitor the patient’s medications and also the progress of their healthcare treatments.

Advantages of Telemedicine for the Patients

Telemedicine can also give various advantages for the patients. For instance, this online medicine delivery system will cut down the costs of hospital visits for the patients. They just need to use the telemedicine service to consult about their health condition and get the right prescription for their condition. Then, the medicines will get delivered to their address as soon as possible. Sometimes, they can get the medicine on the same day if the healthcare facility is partnering with local pharmacies.

Patients who can’t move because of their disabilities or because of certain health conditions can also use the telemedicine service to enable them to get the right healthcare treatments at home. So, they don’t need to force their physical body to move just to make a trip to the healthcare facility.

Disadvantages of Telemedicine for the Healthcare Professionals

Telemedicine also has certain disadvantages for the healthcare professionals, such as during the emergency healthcare. It might be impossible for the healthcare professionals to provide emergency healthcare services via telemedicine, as the patients need to be on site for the healthcare professionals to examine their body and provide the treatments necessary to improve their health conditions.

Telemedicine might also require the healthcare facilities to license certain medicines for sale online. The licensing issues might create another issue for the patients, which makes some medicines unavailable for certain patients who live in certain areas, because the healthcare facilities don’t have the license to sell the medicines in those areas.

Disadvantages of Telemedicine for the Patients

For the patients, telemedicine can give certain disadvantages, including insurance coverage. Most of the time, insurance companies will only provide coverage for their health insurance plan for patients who buy medicines from certain pharmacies or healthcare facilities. Insurance companies won’t support the insurance coverage for patients using the telemedicine service to buy their medicines.

Also, the medical data stored in the telemedicine app might get hacked sometimes if the patients are not careful in how they access the telemedicine service. For instance, they might be susceptible to hacking attacks if they access the telemedicine service via unencrypted public hotspots. Thus, it’s important for the patients to keep their connection secure at all times to avoid their health data getting accessed without their permissions.

Conclusion

These are the advantages and disadvantages of telemedicine, both for the healthcare professionals and the patients. You need to understand this information if you want to use the telemedicine service. Yes, it will give you plenty of benefits, but you should know about the disadvantages too. This way, you will know when to use the telemedicine service and when you need to go to the healthcare facility to treat your health conditions.