Improving Patient Engagement with Telemedicine! ---- 5 min read

The patient community today is becoming more proactive in recognizing the red flags related to their well-being. Patients who are fully engaged in their care, are more likely to maintain treatment plans, track their health, and ask their healthcare providers more questions. This ideally prevents illness from getting worse and resulting in more costly interventions.

Hence the proactiveness of healthcare receivers to take ownership of their well-being has made patient engagement a trend in healthcare that is facilitating improved health outcomes. But, what is Patient Engagement?

Patient engagement includes the ability of healthcare providers to survey patients, help them manage their diet and medications, educate them on their specific condition, track their treatment and recovery, and securely communicate with them. This further includes the ownership which the healthcare receivers take in managing their health and getting involved in their medical processes.

Let us consider an example for understanding the role of patient engagement in healthcare.

Let us consider a patient diagnosed with a chronic health condition like Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Generally, the doctor gives a basic idea of the condition to the patient along with the medical prescription and that’s all. Suppose the healthcare provider offers a pulse oximeter that the patient can use to monitor the oxygen saturation level himself/herself at home. With the oximeter, the patient thus can monitor health situations daily which would help in effective COPD management. 

Furthermore, it will be time-saving for both doctor and patient as patient can avoid frequent visits for the check-up.

Thus in relation to disease prevention, treatment and diagnosis, increased patient engagement has shown to facilitate healthier lifestyles, improved patient experiences, and quality of life.

A telemedicine solution is meant to be a system that securely connects healthcare providers and the receivers and further empowers healthcare receivers to improve their lifestyle habits and take more control in managing their conditions to stay healthier. An ideal telemedicine solution enables patient autonomy and proactivity in self-care which ultimately facilitates patient engagement. Increased patient engagement not only leads to patient satisfaction but it also opens door to increased patient retention for the healthcare providers which leads them to success.

Hence while rolling out a telemedicine solution it is important to keep in mind the various healthcare strategies that can help achieve goals of patient engagement.

Read More: How Communication APIs are helping deliver quality Healthcare via Telemedicine

Healthcare Bots

Healthcare bots are emerging as potential assistants in many areas of healthcare as they intelligently offer varied healthcare services. The very purpose of introducing healthcare chatbots is to make patient interactions easier and improve patient engagement. In today’s busy schedule, often visiting a hospital may not be feasible. That is when a patient looks for comfort and what option can be better than using healthcare chatbots.

For instance,

• A therapist bot can help an individual to cope with stress and mood swings
• In fitness, healthcare bots are your nutrition consultants, your trainers and your workout partners
• A symptom checker chatbot can help patients with medical advice as per their disease and symptoms and can further schedule an appointment with a doctor
• Chatbots can also be designed to send notifications and reminders to patients about their appointment with the physician, time when they have to take their medicines, and more. Likewise, physicians can also receive reminders about their session with patients, meetings with other doctors, pathologists, etc.

Remote Patient Monitoring 

Monitoring a patient’s activity outside the hospital is extremely important for better health outcomes. Remote patient monitoring involves the utilization of digital technologies to monitor and capture medical data from patients and electronically transmit the information to their providers for evaluation and recommendations. This encourages and educates people in such a way that people take more stake in their health.

Amid Covid-19 pandemic, remote patient monitoring technology can be the best way to ensure patient care remotely.

For instance,

A person suffering from type 2 diabetes followed a remote patient monitoring technology for a month wherein the person was required to monitor his/her biometric data (blood pressure, weight, and glucose level) every day. As a result, both patient and physician were able to keep a check on the patient’s health progress. This further gave the physician the right chance to intervene before the issue could get worse.

Preventive Healthcare

Early detection of diseases through preventive care not only saves lives but also shelter insurance providers from huge medical claims. 

Thus, medical insurance providers today are offering varied healthcare solutions by leveraging telemedicine to deliver preventative healthcare to their customers. Insurance companies offer healthcare solutions that can engage patients effectively and

retain them for a longer period thus ensuring improved health outcomes.

These healthcare solutions can cover the following healthcare services

• Yoga & Meditation Consultation
• Psychiatrist Consultation
• Nutrition & Lifestyle Consultation

Preventative healthcare solutions offered by a telemedicine app thus encourage patients to adopt a preventative care regime which further turns down huge medical claims on medical insurance providers. The idea here is to nip diseases in the bud before they become catastrophic.

For instance,

A medical service provider leveraging a telemedicine solution for offering online Yoga classes. This practice helps boost the immunity of insured individuals which further reduces the chances of them getting health issues and getting hospitalized.

Teleconsultation

Some of the biggest barriers for patients these days are location and time. Teleconsultation removes all these barriers and allows healthcare providers and receivers to connect without worrying about time or location limitations. Teleconsultation offers diagnosis by visually assessing and understanding patient’s health issues and queries via text, video, or voice consultation. 

With Video and Voice conferencing physicians and patients can communicate remotely, which helps patients receive in-person medical attention as well as diagnosis in real-time.

HIPAA-compliant chat can further drive faster and media-rich communication for better patient outcomes and engagement. 

Apart from Video, Voice, and Chat functionalities, a teleconsultation app can offer a number of other features like:

• At-home medical tests
• Calendar integration
• Video session recording
• Treatment notes
• Prescription delivery
• Medical records storage & much more!

For instance,

A person suffering from mental illness or anxiety wanting an immediate appointment with a therapist who stays far away or is out of town, in such cases teleconsultation can be extremely helpful.

Read more: Types of Real-time Communication and their Use Cases

Conclusion

Giving power to patients and making them accountable for their health leads to better health outcomes which further determines the success of healthcare organizations. To achieve patient engagement goals, you need the right technology that can be deployed to enhance patient communication and get the desired benefits.

Channelize.io allows you to launch your own HIPAA Compliant telehealth solution for remote doctor-patient communication, with modern features like 

• Real-time Chat Consultation
• High-quality Video & Audio consultation
• Diagnostic Reports & Medical Documents sharing
• Appointments Scheduling and Booking
• Free Follow-ups Post-Appointment
• Cross-browser Compatibility
• Bot Integration and much more!

If you are a health-tech startup, a medical insurance provider, a fitness expert, or a nutritionist looking for a secure patient consultation solution then Channelize.io Telemedicine solution is the answer to all your concerns.

Ready to Get Started?

Get in touch with us at info@channelize.io to discuss your business needs. Also, if you want to book a DEMO, we’re just a click away.

Chronic health management, mental health, health education are some of the major concerns for healthcare providers and their patients these days. Stay tuned for our next blog to know how Telemedicine can help combat these concerns.