Telemedicine: The plan and privacy

As indicated, last week, there is a big push on governmentally and health insurance industry wide, to reduce the cost of delivering health-care while expanding the level of service.

Until now, there has been reluctance on the part of the health-care industry to spend money on expensive new technology today that could possibly minimize the ever-growing cost of health care tomorrow.

Ironically, since the healthcare reform process that the Obama administration passed has been implemented, there has been a residual effect in that it has prompted the health insurance industry to rethink their negative attitudes and begin to really consider the new telemedicine agenda.

Technology companies like Intel and General Electric have been actively pursuing the creation of home health-care monitoring system’s that would have the ability to transmits data from devices like blood-pressure cuffs and glucose meters directly over the Internet.

Google and IBM are throwing their hats in the ring, as they too are developing telemedicine solutions in home systems that will have Internet data transmission capabilities.

The overall aim of this new partnership between the technology companies and the health insurance industry is to create technology that will guarantee and provide a real life interaction between patients and doctors over the Internet.

It would seem the health insurance industry is finally ready to accept a nontraditional delivery system and to loosen their purse strings, kicking out a few big bucks to get the telemedicine process started along with the government, and both believe that remote monitoring technology is just the right fit to increase the degree of medical services, while at the same time decreasing the cost.

So, how does this new system work? When looking at the overall layout of this new technology, it is clear that most of it is already readily available and will only need to be modified to fit the proposed medical agenda.

The system will use high-definition cameras and monitors in a telepresence format that will create an experience between the doctor and patient that will be much like that of a visual conference call.

A certified, trained medical professional, along with an IT technician, will be the onsite presence at the patient’s residence along with the monitoring and telecommunications equipment that will be set up to connect with the same type of equipment back at the doctor’s office.

There is also another telemedicine solution that is a small telepresence room or pod that can be driven to any location and have patients be seen on the mobile unit or a pod that can be moved, inside a medical facility, from room to room.

Once all is connected, there will be an online link between the physician and the patient and it is hoped the experience will be very intimate to the degree that the patient will feel like he or she is in the same room with their physician.

That intimacy is where we look at the issue of privacy and the fact that it is not really possible, at this point, to address the issue of privacy since this can only be accurately dealt with once the telemedicine technology is in place and being used on a broad basis.

Again, the hope is that the aspect of intimacy will impart the same feeling of privacy that is now felt by a patient when addressing medical and health concerns in the physician’s actual office, but only the implementation of the technology and patient response will tell us how the issue of privacy is perceived.

There are various telemedicine systems being used in test modes throughout the country, by various health insurance groups and technology companies, with the ongoing monitoring of the new technologies efficiency, cost effectiveness and how the test group of patients perceives this new method of delivering health care.

The majority of the testing is being done in areas where there is limited access to adequate health care or rural areas where the travel distance in receiving health-care services can be problematic.

Yet, to date, there has not been a release of any information or statistics regarding how the process is being perceived by the patients as well as how the new technology is functioning.

Is there a doctor in the house? Oh, yes there is and the doctor is on your computer asking you to, “please bend over and cough”!

How do you feel about this brave new world of technology and health care?

- Andino Ward