What benefits does telemedicine offer across all medical specialties?
It enables us to treat patients who would otherwise not have access to the particular medical specialty or sub-specialty they require. It will also likely provide a cost savings function, because the video conference itself is not very expensive. The initial outlay for the equipment may be a little high, but that’s a one-time event, and it doesn’t wear out very quickly. We also know that more timely consultation in any area leads to improvement in healthcare and outcomes. Another benefit is that telemedicine makes it easier to consult with an expert from another specialty. For instance, if in the course of performing a telepsychiatry consultation for a patient in New York I realized that he had a rare medical condition—and it turns out that the world’s expert on that condition is in the Netherlands—through a relatively easy set of steps, we could arrange for a three-way video conference to have this patient evaluated and seen by that expert, enhancing the chances for more optimal treat
