The Telehealth Movement
Our professionals at Assurgent Medical Staffing are constantly looking for innovative ways to provide opportunities for doctors and medical facilities. Right now, the most innovative concept in healthcare is Telehealth. Our goal is to help medical practices, hospitals, and clinics understand the benefits of utilizing telehealth in their facility, while at the same time providing an opportunity to medical providers to reach more patients in a more efficient and less time consuming manner.
Telehealth, also known as Tele-Medicine, is booming right now. An article published on Forbes.com in September 2015 brings to light 5 different companies who are leading the way in this industry. However, before we get into the five leading “tele-companies”, where did the idea for telehealth come from? The article pointed at two different factors that paved the way for Telehealth. First, telehealth is modeled off of online banking. With online banking, it took some time for people to understand the convenience of its use. Today, most people never step foot into an actual bank unless it is for a purpose that cannot be dealt with online. Telehealth is expanding, and will likely end up being utilized in the same fashion.
The other company that has paved the way for Telehealth is Microsoft. Microsoft came out with their Kinect Motion Sensor in order to create a better gaming experience. Little did they know that this technology would be so useful in the medical field. The human skeletal tracking system can be used for musculoskeletal health. Microsoft’s Senior Director for Worldwide Health, Dr. Bill Crounse explained, “I have seen Kinect being used in applications for physical medicine and rehabilitation, pre and post-surgical evaluations, and many other medical behavioral health problems in countries around the world.”
The five companies that are blazing trails in telehealth are RespondWell, Unaliwear.com, Conversahealth.com, Empower-Interactive.com, and Health123.com. What sets these companies apart from the other?
RespondWell is a digital health company that empowers healthcare providers to remotely provide rehabilitation experiences. RespondWell combined the science of physical therapy with the gaming technology presented by Microsoft, and has created a “telerehab” platform. Their focus is to improve the outcome of rehabilitation while at the same time, lowering the costs.
Unaliwear.com has created something called the Kanega watch. This was created to help keep elderly patients safe and at the same time, active. The watch does things such as alert the patient that it is time to take their medicine, provide directions, and detect falls. The watch is also waterproof so that it can be worn all day long. The Kanega watch will be available in 2016.
Conversahealth.com allows patients to stay in touch with their doctor and receive checkups from home. The doctor is available for questions, can receive information and data from monitoring devices and self-reports, and will be alerted if the patient needs a one-on-one consult based on their data entries.
Empower-Interactive.com is a behavioral health platform that provides blended therapy and self-care solutions for patients with mental health problems. According to Eve Phillips, the company’s CEO and Co-founder, “…50% of major depression sufferers are estimated to not receive any care at all. Blended therapy plus digital self-care solutions like Empower’s enable therapists to help two to three times as many people while providing and always-on e-learning experience for the individual.”
Finally, Health123.com is a platform that provides patients with care plans and direct connections to their medical providers and meets them on their terms. Patients care plans should be personalized and easy to integrate into their lives in order for them to be followed. The company’s CEO explains that this cloud-based platform provides the patient with mobile reminders, relationships with clinical coaches, and promotes “self-care” in order to cut back on time spent in the doctor’s office.
Pay attention to these platforms, as it is likely they will become house-hold names in the near future. Telehealth is a fast-paced growing industry that will continue to create new ways of providing patient care. Assurgent Medical Staffing is staying on the look-out for ways that we can utilize telehealth to provide placements for medical providers who are looking for a new and creative way to better treat patients.
Give Assurgent Medical Staffing a call today to see what telehealth positions we have open, or if you are interested in adding a telehealth platform to your practice!
