Why telehealth is good for healthcare
Telemedicine will be key to getting high-quality medicine to rural areas in the future. In this video, bioethicist Ezekiel Emanuel, MD, PhD, explains why web-based house calls will see growth in the future.
Transcript
One of the big shortages in America is dermatologists. With a smartphone, you can take a picture of a rash,
send it to a dermatologist. They don't ever need to see you to be able to diagnose that rash in many, many cases.
Absolutely essential, I think. We have first, let's be honest, 20% of the population
is in rural areas. Telemedicine is going to be key to getting them high quality health care. We've had a difficulty-- and we'll never overcome it--
of getting high quality practitioners to practice in rural areas. It's just not that likely that you're
going to get a super talented doctor going to North Dakota or South Dakota. Nothing against North Dakota or South Dakota, but there's no community of practitioners.
It's harder. Telemedicine is going to be key. And it's going to be key even in urban areas because just take one of the big shortages in America
is dermatologists. With a smartphone, you can take a picture of a rash send it to a dermatologist.
They don't ever need to see you to be able to diagnose that rash in many, many cases. It's going to happen. Another company that does web-based house
calls, a lot of stuff can be done over the web. Not all of it, but they've established web-based house
calls in Seattle. And 3/4 of what they see over the web can be handled over the web.
Well, a quarter can't, but you've already triaged a lot of it using basically telemedicine. So I see that as another growth area.
You know, like everything else, we're going to have to figure out how to use it appropriately and not inappropriately.
health care
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