The significant development of technology has changed the way health care is being provided today. With the primary benefits offered by virtual house calls, people may now be able to acquire sufficient and reliable medical services without even paying a visit to the doctor. A virtual house call is a form of “telemedicine” which allows a patient to directly consult a medical professional using electronic channels of communications. The patient can interact with the doctors by using an internet based platform wherein he can send information about non-urgent health concerns.
Sometimes, it is also possible to set an appointment with the doctor using this platform. The main difference in traditional patient-doctor relationship with this kind of set up is that information barriers will be minimized. Of course, there will be a big savings in terms of time and effort resources for both parties. However, the interpersonal relationship of the two parties involved may be compromised on a personal scale since virtual cyberspace is commonly connoted with anonymity. In terms of financial attributes, virtual house calls are generally a little costly compared to conventional means of consultations.
This is so because doctors tend to allot additional time to cater to patients in a specific time frame. However, there are still some telemedicine formats which can provide cheaper alternatives for the patient to choose from what type of medical services he would like to avail virtually. The format of virtual house calls provides direct database access for the patients. They will be able to track the medical history and consultation info recorded on the database (Stewart, 2007). Personal health records will always be available for them which will speed up the consultation process once submitted to the physician.
On a personal note, having a virtual house call is the kind of service I am looking forward to. It can somehow provide more convenience on my part and will hasten the process of getting an answer for a health inquiry. On the other side of the equation, if I am a caregiver, telemedicine can be very beneficial for me since information and data about the health records of my patients will generally be very accessible resulting to outright and efficient rendering of health service.
References
Stewart, A. 2007. Virtual House Call. Radiology Today. Retrieved December 29, 2007 from http://www. radiologytoday. net/archive/rt03262007p12. shtml.