Telemedicine beyond the pandemic: challenges in the pediatric immunology clinic

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Telemedicine and electronic medical records (EMRs) have revolutionized healthcare in recent years, offering numerous benefits that improve the delivery of care and the overall patient outcomes.

Areas covered

Telemedicine allows providers to diagnose and treat patients remotely, often eliminating the need for face-to-face visits. Its benefits include improved access to care, convenience for patients, and reduced costs both for patients and providers. When used with remote patient monitoring and remote therapeutic monitoring, continuous care becomes possible. EMRs allow providers to store, access, and share patient information more efficiently than paper charts. The benefits of EMRs include improved patient safety, increased efficiency, and reduced costs.

Expert opinion

The combination of telemedicine with EMRs makes it possible to envision the advent of computer-assisted diagnosis (CAD). This technology uses artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to analyze medical information including images, clinical and physiologic data, test results and remotely obtained information to support healthcare providers in making accurate diagnoses. By providing providers with what is essentially a second opinion, CAD systems can help prevent misdiagnoses and improve the quality of care. Such systems are not meant to replace healthcare providers, but rather to support them in making more informed and accurate diagnoses.

KEYWORDS:

• Telemedicine
• remote monitoring
• electronic medical records
• computer assisted diagnosis
• facilitated visit
• direct to consumer
• children
• immunology

Article highlights

• Telehealth is a generic term that includes the use of technology for patient care, medical education, administrative interactions, and any other healthcare-related interaction

• Telemedicine is a subset of telehealth that involves the clinical management of patients in a variety of forms using technology.

• Virtual visits can serve as a substitute for in-person visits. Such visits can be performed using either facilitated telemedicine (in which the patient goes to a nearby clinic and is assisted by a tele-facilitator to see the provider) or direct to consumer visits in which a patient uses their own equipment to communicate with the provider.

• Remote patient monitoring (RPM) involves the collection of physiologic data that can include the use of wearable technology that can be transmitted to a monitoring station for inclusion in the patient’s electronic medical record.

• Remote therapeutic monitoring (RTM) involves RPM with the added aspect of a therapeutic intervention that is provided real-time in response to the information that is monitored.

• By combining telemedicine with computer-based clinical decision making that uses the received data, continuous computer-assisted diagnosis (CAD) and treatment is possible.

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was not funded.