What Is Telehealth?
Telehealth, also known as medical telematics, is the use of telecommunications to exchange health information between patients, their caregivers, and healthcare providers. It is the delivery of healthcare services via online video and/or audio, mobile, video applications, or other specialized telecommunications equipment.
Telehealth can be used to deliver remote patient monitoring and management, as well as clinical interventions such as consultations, assessments, consultations, and education.
The Different Types of Telehealth
- Live Video Conferencing
- Asynchronous Video (AKA Store-and-Forward)
- Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM)
- Mobile Health (mHealth)
StudentBody.care: Our Upcoming Telehealth Application
StudentBody.care will provide telehealth to students, who can use it anytime, anywhere, and miss fewer classes because of illness or medical emergency. The main concept behind StudentBody.care is to provide telehealth service to students at a low cost while integrating with existing campus resources.
StudentBody.care is an opportunity for every student to get access to high-quality healthcare, medical consultation, and 24/7 medical advice as well as quick diagnosis through a video chat with a doctor. It also benefits patients who live hundreds of miles away from their loved ones or caretakers. It will allow these students to receive regular checkups and access to health monitoring and medical records.
If you are an administrator of a higher education institution, one of your prime responsibilities is to ensure that your students receive the training they need to succeed. At the forefront of this mission is developing the tools and platforms necessary to facilitate the dissemination of knowledge throughout your campus communities. One such platform is StudentBody.care.
What Conditions Can a Student Get Treated for with StudentBody.care?
Students can receive consultation and/or treatment for a variety of conditions through StudentBody.care. Conditions include rashes, flu, sinus infections, UTI, migraines, acne, mental health counseling, substance use disorder treatment, behavioral health treatment, discharge planning services, palliative care, and therapy.
Economic Evaluation of StudentBody.care
StudentBody.care is a cost-effective and timely solution for college telehealth, readily accessible to students, faculty, and staff of higher education institutions. It offers 24-hour services with attention from clinicians who can provide healthcare in areas of mental health, medical health, and counseling.
Further, StudentBody.care enables increased behavioral health management and monitoring due to the greater availability of providers who are able to consult with individuals at any time via video conference.
Using StudentBody.care, healthcare organizations are able to save money on the delivery of care by closing the gap between in-person visits and preventing unnecessary office visits and emergency room visits.
Using telehealth to improve health outcomes is one of the most promising strategies for improving the quality of healthcare, but it can only be used effectively if the primary care system is also involved. StudentBody.care can help improve communication between patients and providers. This helps improve patient safety, reduce emissions of harmful air pollutants, and lowers overall healthcare costs.
Telehealth has been shown to improve the quality of healthcare, reduce healthcare costs, and improve the health of patients. One economic evaluation of telehealth in primary care, for example, found that using telehealth to provide patients with remote access to their medical records reduced the number of in-person visits by nearly half. This helped reduce the cost of providing care to patients, and it also helped improve the quality of care provided to patients.
Another economic evaluation, which focused on the use of telehealth in the acute care setting, found that using telehealth to provide remote patient care reduced the number of emergency room visits by half.
StudentBody.care: 8 Advantages for College Students
- Easy Access to a Doctor
StudentBody.care gives people easy access to the care of their doctors, instead of having to travel long distances. Using new technologies, such as video visits and secure messaging, students can get the care they need from the comfort of their own living spaces. This can reduce health system costs, improve the patient experience and increase access to care.
- Lower Cost
Telehealth has been touted as a cost-saving measure for healthcare, delivering care to patients where and when they need it most. The use of remote technology to provide healthcare has proven to be an effective way to provide care to those who might not otherwise be able to visit a doctor. By offering a wide range of services, telehealth has the potential to reduce healthcare costs for both the patient and the health system.
- Medical Access for College Students Without Health Insurance
StudentBody.care connects a student to a provider over video chat, allowing students to get the treatment that they need. StudentBody.care is especially beneficial for college students who are uninsured and who may not be able to consistently attend their appointments or afford medication.
- Medical Access for College Students in Rural Areas
StudentBody.care provides medical access for students in rural areas who do not have access to medical help. Students can talk to a doctor, schedule labs, and receive prescriptions. This can save patients time and money and lower stress on families who previously had to travel long distances to doctors.
- Reduced Exposure to Pathogens
StudentBody.care can help prevent the spread of both infectious diseases and chronic conditions over long distances. Research shows that telehealth is a promising delivery system to reduce the spread of infectious diseases, like COVID-19 in sub-Saharan Africa. Exposing chronically-ill patients to a virtual medical team is an exciting frontier, and telehealth could play a key role, in combination with other interventions, in improving treatment and outcomes for such patients.
- Middle-of-the-Night Care for College Students
Nearly half of all Americans have been affected by medical emergencies at some point in their lives, with millions hospitalized, treated, and discharged in less than ideal circumstances. For middle-of-the-night care, which is often delivered by hospital emergency departments (EDs), the situation is even worse. College students, who often have no other place to turn when they are sick at night, often have to skip classes and lose sleep when they can’t get an urgent care visit. StudentBody.care plays a vital role for those students.
- Reduced Medical Overhead Costs
Telehealth, the use of technology to provide healthcare, is becoming an important tool in the healthcare arsenal. It is being used to reduce the medical overhead costs for college and university students, allowing them to see a doctor without having to sacrifice time or cost. This has the potential to improve the health of the population, reduce the cost of healthcare, and improve the quality of care for the population, which is a win-win for college and university students, the community, and the country as a whole.
- Online Psychiatric Support
StudentBody.care provides online psychiatric support for people with mental health issues, including anxiety and depression, which are common and treatable. It provides confidential psychiatric support that is affordable and accessible even if a student has no health insurance.
What Was the Role of Telehealth during the Covid-19 Period?
Telemedicine became a primary tool during the COVID-19 period.
Fear of infection is a major obstacle between doctors and patients during an epidemic. Patients do not want to go to hospitals or clinics considering the high risk of infection. But they need treatment. On the other hand, due to the lack of a suitable environment and proper personal protective equipment, doctors believe that they should not come in direct contact with the patient. However, they also want to continue medical services.
Telemedicine is not new. In the past, people used to take various advice on the telephone from well-known doctors. After the introduction of mobile phones, people started getting advice on diseases as well as prescriptions in short messages. Physicians and patients are taking advantage of this with the advancement of medical technology and information technology. Although it was an alternative arrangement for so long, telemedicine has become the mainstay of more people during epidemics.
Telemedicine to Prevent Future Epidemics
Telemedicine will play a pivotal role for college and university students. We already that know students in COVID-19 situations are at great risk. If an epidemic like COVID-19 occurs in the future, it will be very difficult for students to seek medical attention. Telehealth will play an important role here in ensuring full-time college and university students receive medical services during an epidemic.
How Can the Doctor Diagnose a Student Without Actually Doing a Physical Exam?
A doctor doesn’t need to examine every patient firsthand. Many conditions can be diagnosed and treated based on answers and history.
The components of a doctor-patient interaction are often just as important to diagnosis and treatment as the examination itself. That’s why knowing medical history, describing symptoms, and providing current information helps doctors process this information in full.
Further, through partnerships already established with health information exchanges, StudentBody.care can retrieve a patient’s past medical history, assisting the diagnostic process.
How Does Telehealth Improve Access to Healthcare?
Telehealth is an effective tool for improving access to healthcare. Research shows that it helps patients living in rural areas receive more care, especially due to the fact that they are able to link with providers at home and not have to travel far distances to receive treatment. Telehealth also allows patients who live in rural areas to experience live video visits with their providers for both acute and chronic issues.
Do Health Plans Cover Telemedicine?
Yes, health plans cover telemedicine. However, some plans have specific guidelines regarding the specific types of services that can be performed remotely and what medications can be prescribed via telemedicine. Some plan participants may be required to obtain a referral from a primary care physician before scheduling an appointment.
There are requirements and limitations on coverage. A plan may require one to fill out a form prior to a consultation with a provider, specifying the services for which one is requesting coverage. They’ll also want to know what diagnosis is being made by the provider before authorizing it.
Conclusion
Students are able to consult with their doctors through the use of telemedicine technology. Students can speak with a licensed medical professional 24 hours a day, 7 days a week through StudentBody.care.
The most important benefit is that physicians can spend more time with patients, so they can see them in detail through their webcam and monitor them directly during their consultations. This leads to stronger trust between doctor and patient, which is essential for long-term care.
Another advantage is that telehealth enables doctors to reach many people who do not have access to medical care due to being very remote or not having an address in a city, as well as patients who may have a disability or other condition that prevents them from leaving their living space.
If you are a college / university administrator or student, please contact us to learn more about StudentBody.care, the Telehealth service designed specifically for colleges and universities.