Over the past year, never before in the healthcare scenario have we heard so much about all the terms beginning with the prefix “tele”: telemedicine, telecare, teleconsultation, teleassistance, teleoperation, telemonitoring. Likewise, the discussion and perception of the impacts, pros and cons, went beyond the barriers of healthcare institutions and the government sphere to enter into discussions among the general population.
However, there are some impacts that are often not so evident, especially for those who are not involved in the day-to-day operations. In addition to facilitating access and increasing the speed with which patients are treated, providing resolution, increasing safety and avoiding waste, another great advantage of telemedicine is anticipating scenarios, something crucial when we are talking about population health.
I have nicknamed this concept “telemedicine”. It almost sounds like the name of a medicine, which is true. After all, this prediction can actually be a remedy for the healthcare system. This is because, when we take a more analytical approach, telemedicine reveals information that helps us correct our course, prepare ourselves, and predict increases or decreases in demand. Let me explain why.
According to data extracted from the databases of the Brazilian Association of Telemedicine and Digital Health Companies – Saúde Digital Brasil (SDB), from March of last year to April of this year, there were more than 7.5 million consultations. Of these, 87% were first consultations, avoiding the famous unnecessary visits and even identifying through exams the need for care in a hospital unit.
In fact, one of the great capabilities of telemedicine is to absorb care that would traditionally be directed to more complex structures. It takes on the role of emergency rooms, which are generally the gateway to the system, but which were designed to meet a level of complexity that is higher than what the vast majority of people actually need.
Obviously, everyone who comes there will have their complaints heard. However, at the same time, these people are using a resource of great structural complexity, when, in fact, the real need would be for a service unit with a great density of knowledge, capable of solving, in most cases, the problem, or else referring the person to a more specialized service, which is already very accurate.
Therefore, it can be said that, in addition to relieving this complex structure and avoiding both the underutilization of specialists and the overutilization of the system, telemedicine, due to the agility it provides and the volume of data it records, can highlight, from a population point of view, the movements that occur in health and illness with some advance notice.
This was also true during the pandemic, when we had a very high volume of care and were able to monitor the indicators obtained in online consultations and compare them with data from in-person care in outpatient and hospital units. By performing a statistical analysis based on the growth curves of telemedicine care, in the case of Covid-19, for example, we realized that they allow us to anticipate information by five to seven days in relation to what is observed in person.
While the official numbers showed regression and stability, those from telemedicine pointed to growth. And we have seen this repeat itself constantly, in the last four or five weeks, with a systematic increase in cases between 15% and 30%. Could this be a prediction of what is to come and that will impact the system as a whole, once again?
We are only talking about this pandemic, which is of frightening proportions. Likewise, telemedicine could also help anticipate other variations and demands on the health system (public and private) due to diseases and/or outbreaks. We know that trends say a lot about epidemics and pandemics. In other words, it is something directly proportional – if many people enter the system with the same complaint, it is (or could be) a valuable warning sign. It means that something is wrong. And here we return to the question of how much technology can be predictive and anticipate what might happen.
That said, have you ever stopped to think about how much money, resources and, most importantly, how many lives could be saved if technology were used correctly and to its full potential? The benefits are for everyone. The gain is for the manager, for the health system, for the patient and for the doctor. Telepreparation, telemedicine, teleconsultation, the use of technology, or whatever you prefer to call it, are definitely good remedies for our health.
*Caio Soares is vice president of Saúde Digital Brasil – Brazilian Association of Telemedicine and Digital Health Companies
Source: https://politica.estadao.com.br/blogs/fausto-macedo/telepredicicina-um-remedio-para-o-sistema-de-saude/?fbclid=IwAR2kE-q0q4lxn8Jbg59UBMJWLFORtbl6vzPRRcWBqSA1v0Q7_UL4iZfABlw
