In times of pandemic, the saturation of medical centers and hospitals, as well as the need to maintain social distance, have caused a growing sector such as telemedicine to evolve exponentially in recent months.

Telemedicine is a branch of health focused on providing services by health professionals through information and communication technologies. Its objective is to offer diagnosis, treatment and prevention of diseases, as well as research, evaluation and continuous training, through the experience of health professionals.

Its future potential for developing a more sustainable healthcare system and improving people's health is undeniable. In the long run and with the necessary investment in R&D, telemedicine could lead to cost savings and greater efficiency when assisting patients. Among the advantages that we can highlight in this regard, we find:

  • Savings in waiting and transporttimes for the user.
  • Better time management between patients by doctors and instant personalised treatment.
  • Possibility of assistance in areas that are difficult to access and reduction of gaps in care due to geographical location.
  • Communication and training facilities or distance tutoring.
 

Currently, we can distinguish three main branches within telemedicine:

Remote patient monitoring: allows home monitoring of patients, through devices specialized in the collection of various medical data of the patient such as blood pressure, temperature or blood oxygen level, among others.

Storage and sending technologies: For a correct patient follow-up, it is necessary to have the necessary infrastructures, connectivity between medical centres and databases.

Interactive telemedicine: Currently the most popular system among users, which consists of a video call between the doctor and the patient for assessment.

Telemedicine is therefore presented as a key instrument for making healthcare more sustainable and improving people's health: cost savings and greater efficiency in healthcare, as well as a significant improvement in healthcare provision in regions considered inaccessible or with difficult access to healthcare.

Despite the latest advances in the sector, there are still great challenges ahead. Sociocultural factors mean that patients still feel some reluctance when it comes to being treated remotely and do not feel the same confidence in the diagnosis. On the other hand, a large percentage of the population does not have sufficient knowledge for the use of information and communication technologies (ICT).

Types of Telemedicine

Types of Telemedicine - Source: campussanofi

To try to solve these problems, it is necessary to have devices prepared for this purpose and designed exclusively for their end users. In Intelligent Data we have a great experience in the sector and we work with the maxim of developing easy to use, accessible, robust and ruggedized projects that improve the quality of life of people.

An example of our devices designed for telemedicine and telecare, is ID Vitaour Smartwatch designed exclusively to serve as a communication and monitoring device, through Wifi or 4G technologies.