At the World of Healthcare IT conference in Barcelona, delegates have been told patients are happy with self diagnosing. This claim has come from Dr Kaveh Safavi of Accenture and it is part of a move to personalise healthcare. It is also about moving away from the idea of a doctor as a quasi God and reduce the need to visit clinics.
This is not just about eliminating the healthcare professional from the care chain. Instead it is about reducing time lost by patients sitting in a waiting room hoping to see a doctor. It is the next step on the tele-medicine journey that has been going on for a few decades. This is more than just using a webcam or a camera on a mobile device to interact with a doctor.
Patients go to a location where the medical equipment to take their pulse, check their blood pressure and gather other measurements are available. They have access to a video session with a doctor who can walk them through how to take the measurements. Alternatively they could be rooms staffed by a nurse who can assist the patient. The initial results in the US have been mixed.
Overcoming the resistance of the doctors
The first problem was getting patients involved. There was a lot of resistance here but not necessarily from the patients. The initial objections came from the medical profession despite the improvements it delivered in terms of productivity. Once it was clear that the system would work for both doctors and patients the take-up has been interesting. One of the biggest gains has been the involvement of the patient. It appears that people are very happy to work out how to use the various pieces of equipment that are available to them.
Not mentioned by Safavi is that patients have been moving down this self diagnosis route for a while. Pharmacies, chemists even supermarkets now sell devices to measure blood pressure and take temperature. There is also a growing number of online stores that have a wide range of medical diagnostic equipment available for sale to the public. In addition to this the explosion of wearable technology such as fitbit wrist bands and others are collecting data from patients and potential patients constantly.
For remote communities where it can be expensive to get a doctor to visit on an irregular basis, all of this makes sense. The costs of time and travel are eliminated for the doctor resulting in significant savings. This time can be used to help patients. This will also ensure a greater access to healthcare for communities where health issues are increasingly seen as being a major challenge.
A need for businesses and community centres to get involved
This is not just about engaging remote communities or those who are under served. Blood Donation vans often visit universities, offices and take advantage of community centres. The same is true of breast cancer lorries as healthcare bosses look to move healthcare into the community.
Large businesses, universities and even public schools have their own first aid suites. Connecting these up to the local surgery or doctor services could save companies, staff and doctors a lot of time. It could be promoted to staff and universities as a health bonus in the same way as blood donor vans. For manufacturing it would also fit in well with their own in-house medical services. It would give them access to specialists in case of an accident and provide them with more comprehensive support.
For services such as NHS Direct, there are other possibilities. When patients call into the call centre they could use the camera on their mobile device to show the injury. This would speed up the triage service and reduce the number of home visits that doctors have to make. It would also ensure that patients who need to go to A&E are sent there quickly with the operator snapping images of the injury. That could be forwarded to A&E allowing them much more information than they have at present.
Conclusion
There is a lot of potential for virtual healthcare. It can lower costs and increase productivity. More importantly it has the ability to deliver healthcare to remote communities and increase patient engagement. These are all goals that the healthcare business has been trying to improve since tele-medicine was first touted. The problem to date has been a lack of available technology. Today the technology is there and patients are willing to use it. As healthcare continues to struggle with increased demand it needs to use every solution at its disposal.
