Utilizing Telemedicine Tools and Staying Connected

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PATIENT EMPOWERMENT NETWORK

Dr. Kvedar:

Finally, in the same way we exchange emails and text messages, we can do that securely with patients, what we call e-visits, which can be very helpful, as well. So there are a variety of forms, but it's really all about care where the patient is, when the patient needs it, and not having an individual travel to visit a doctor in person. Can you break down the differences between the terms telehealth, virtual visits, e-visits, and virtual health? I'll go back to the beginning when there were visionary clinicians who believed medicine could be delivered this way and were doing this kind of work. They called it telemedicine. A few years into that journey, there were a number of clinicians who felt that the same technologies could be used in other ways, including education, and so they started using the term telehealth to make it broader and more inclusive. To this day, telehealth the term that everyone is mostly comfortable with. A few years ago, some people started to say that we needed to be able distinguish between real-time and asynchronous interactions, the same way that we have video or phone calls and emails, and that we also needed to distinguish between direct-to-patient interactions and interactions between clinicians If it is an interaction between patient and doctor, it's a virtual visit; if it's between clinicians, it's a virtual consult. For example, if a physician is caring for a stroke patient in another hospital, we call that a virtual consult. An e-visit is considered an asynchronous interaction. For instance, I'm a dermatologist, so if my patient takes a picture of a rash or skin disorder, and sends it to me via a secure portal, I could respond with a message back to the patient. That would be an e-visit.

Honora Miller:

Dr. Kvedar:

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