Last updated on Thursday, 12, August, 2021

What is telehealth?

Telehealth is a way to connect healthcare providers and their patients virtually. Through it, the doctors can interact with the patients, diagnose the condition, and prescribe medications.

It enables healthcare providers to ask relevant questions about the disease. The patient can discuss the signs, symptoms, and history with the doctor through a virtual visit. If the health of the patient concerns the doctor, they first send them to get their tests done. After that, they can rule out the final diagnosis. They can then make a further decision of either to let them stay at home or to get them admitted to the hospital. With telehealth, you can discuss your health condition with your health care provider remotely and easily manage yourself at home without the need to go to the hospital.

In Pakistan, the need for telehealth is increasing day to day due to various reasons. It can help in revolutionizing the healthcare industry of Pakistan. Some of those essential reasons are as follows.

Coronavirus outbreak

Like many other countries, Pakistan is also affected immensely by the coronavirus outbreak. Due to this, people face a lot of difficulties to consult with a healthcare provider for any condition. People who are vulnerable to infections, who have suppressed immune systems due to any reason cannot go to the hospitals. All this makes it an arduous task to consult with the healthcare provider. But with the help of telehealth, people can consult with the healthcare providers remotely, without the fear of getting infected.

Heavy traffic jams

Traffic jams are a common problem in Pakistan, due to this, patients often miss their appointments, or they feel lazy to go to the hospital. Moreover, because of the heavy traffic load, they have to spend more time going to the healthcare provider. Therefore, they keep prolonging their condition just to avoid the visit to the doctor. With the help of telemedicine, they can now consult with their healthcare providers remotely from the comfort of their homes. They need not worry about traffic hazards.

Rural areas

In the rural areas of Pakistan, the facilities of health are not easily available Moreover, tertiary care hospitals are at long distances. One has to travel miles from their village to get an expert opinion from the specialist. Telehealth has made consultations much easier than before. Through it, the patients can consult with the experts, without even going out of their homes.

More patients in less time

In Pakistan, there is a huge burden of patients in clinics and hospitals. The disease rate of certain diseases is quite high. Through telehealth, the doctors can check more patients as they would do that in person. In a normal outpatient clinic, the patient comes inside the doctor’s room, settles down, gets checked, and then takes time to move. Whereas, with electronic consultation, there is no time wasted, not a single second. The doctor can manage the patient’s queue efficiently without any hassle.

More productive

The healthcare workers can serve better when stress is reduced over them. Telehealth helps in doing that by streamlining workflows. In Pakistan, there is already a shortage of doctors, due to which, they are quite stressed. Through telehealth, they can efficiently conduct their consultations and various other activities too.

Conclusion

Telehealth is growing day by day in Pakistan. It is a must-needed tool to have nowadays, most importantly, because of the coronavirus outbreak. Moreover, it makes consultations with healthcare providers easy and feasible. Through it, you can get expert advice from the comfort of your home.