The Future of Telehealth: Opportunities for Professionals

By Austin Tiu, 3.03.2025

Of all the bounties and gifts we have in life, health is undoubtedly the greatest blessing, and all the money and worldly pleasures mean nothing if you are not well.

There are so many diseases, injuries, and other debilitating conditions that it is almost a miracle that we are not constantly in pain or barely able to get out of bed. When something does go wrong, we are lucky enough to have more than plenty of options available to us, like going to the doctor, if it is an emergency, we can call an ambulance and get the fast response we need; or we can take a look online to see what the problem may be. Nowadays, we have so many options, and with the vast digital world, we get even more, and we have the luxury of being able to talk to a physician from the comfort of our home through telemedicine. If you want to branch out into that space, this is the perfect article for you.

What Is It?

Telehealth or telemedicine is when a patient uses video or phone communication to connect with a medical professional to exchange information remotely. Both for patients and for healthcare professionals, this is incredibly convenient, as you can probably imagine. Both parties do not have to leave the comfort of their homes to interact; the physician or doctor can evaluate, diagnose, and begin to treat the patient, which can include writing a prescription, dispensing lab orders, or the like, all over the smartphone, PC, or tablet. None of this is any lesser in quality than if you had gone to the appointment in person.

Conditions

Naturally, not all conditions or health issues can be looked at and resolved this way, and for something serious or that does not have visible symptoms, you should still book an appointment in person. With that said, there are a number of conditions that are well-suited to be treated by telemedicine. Some of them include bronchitis, sinusitis, hay fever, eye allergies, rashes, and so on, all common and recognizable enough for a medical professional to see, recognize, and treat them through telemedicine. The patient does not have to physically move out of their home, wait in line for the appointment, have it done, then come home, and sometimes lose most of the day, while the same goes for the professional.

Quality Tech

When you want to start setting up your own telemedicine, there are several factors you have to consider and plan out. Technology is a good place to start. It obviously will not do if you receive calls on a wheezing old PC that seems to have been hammered together from the Stone Age with pebbles and branches, not only to not tarnish your professional reputation but also so you do not accidentally misdiagnose someone because your camera and screen were just that bad. You need to invest in quality tech that is current with the times, and the same goes for a good Wi-Fi connection. No patient is going to stay long, let alone come back if every call to you is choppy and fraught with disconnects and freezing and glitches. Invest a little more in stable, speedy Wi-Fi, and your patients and you yourself will thank you in the future.

Office

You probably also have live patients, who are often noisy when waiting for the appointment or something, so if you want to focus and be able to help your remote patients effectively, it is vital you have your own office, your space where all the noise from outside does not penetrate. You want a quiet, solemn room where you can work and call and diagnose for as long as necessary without constant interruption or other annoyances like incessant knocking or questions. Also, and this is obvious, do not conduct a telehealth appointment while driving, regardless of how important it may seem. If you get into a crash while on the phone, your patient certainly won’t be helped, nor will any of your other patients for quite some time, if ever.

Ready the Paperwork

It won’t do to dig through mountains of paperwork while you are already in the consultation, instead, you will just be wasting everyone’s time while you spend minutes looking for a single file or document. If a patient has scheduled a call, make sure you have all their paperwork and medical history and the documents you need ahead of time so you can quickly leaf through their list of taken medication, insurance information, pharmacy contact, payment information, allergies, and other health complications, and so on.

Prepared Questions

Telemedicine may be a new concept for you, in which case it is a good idea to get some practice in and have all the questions you should ask prepared prior to the call. This goes for answers to any typical questions your patient may have, like how often they should take this medicine or do that exercise, and so on. It takes some time to get used to talking with patients and treating them remotely, so it is normal to be a bit stiff at the beginning.

Be Understanding

Technology both connects us but also sort of disconnects us in a way, where it becomes more difficult to be perhaps your usual affable self when sitting in front of a screen, and that is completely normal. This is a whole new practice, of course, and it is different when you are talking with someone from behind a screen and can not actually see or touch them in real life, which can be somewhat disorienting, especially when you are a doctor. Remember, your patient is probably just as awkward and unused to this as you, so try to make them at ease and be easygoing until it becomes natural.

Telehealth is a great concept for both ailing patients and healthcare professionals. Taking some time to learn the technology and how best to use it can be both incredibly helpful and profitable if done right.