Since we are heading towards a possible economic recession, people will be very attentive at their spendings, by this means people will buy what they urgently need. And while healthcare is one of the priorities with food expenses and housing, we can expect that a cut on that budget occurs, especially for the category that pays for the visits.

In that sense how can we keep with health expenses when our overall budget is tightening? You cut on on your healthcare budget waiting for better times? This is certainly the immediate solution, still, it does not solve the problem, as ignoring your condition will just make it harder to diagnosis and to treat.   Afterall, and we all agree, our health is our most precious capital. What if you could access healthcare services from the comfort of your home, without having to take a day off for a doctor visit and most importantly at an affordable price?

In fact, when considering an online visit, we profit from the following benefits:

-The online consultation’s price is lower than a visit to the emergency room or at a doctor’s office. In the United States for instance, it costs as high as $140 per visit to the emergency room while teleconsultations can be priced as low as $50 without a loss in quality, as online doctors have the same formation as the doctors you visit at the office.

-Consulting a doctor implicates driving a distance, making you lose time and money while teleconsultations can be conducted immediatly and from the comfort and privacy of your home.

-When diagnosing a condition early on, the chances for a fast recovery are higher while avoiding complications. The overall recurring cost, although harder to materialise, from complications and complex diagnosis is reduced and in certain cases, eliminated. In that sense, telemedicine encourages preventive medicine by trying to understand the causes of the medical condition rather than trying to hide its symptomes with drugs; doctor being physically distant from his patient will take the time to circle the problem and propose an indepth solution.

How do you foresee telemedicine and remote consultations in the near future? Do you see yourself as a potential user of such a service? Do you think remote consultations will become mainstream any time soon?

I was reading Scott Shreeve’s crossoverhealth blog the other night, and I stumbled upon maybe the most insightful article on IT and healthcare I read in the last couple weeks. He is stating that governments are spending more and more money in Telemedicine projects that use their proprietary network and hardware software. These guys have missed the train, and are doing an anachronism. Sadly, this article just clearly states the IT medical space is still taken from another perspective than other fields and is still in its infancy while it should clearly be mainstream nowadays. In fact, all technologies needed to support it are available.

But we need to not forget that people are driving the revolution themselves, by using web 2.0 tools to communicate, find information about health and wellness, and even practice auto diagnosis. People are then ready to use more advanced tools to perform other tasks, like auto managing their health, their medications intakes, and health in general. They also want to use these tools to talk to their doctors. 

Some startups have seized the opportunity, and are developing tools, using technology that has existed from some time now, to enhance patient experience with health care, making the end user happier and healthier.