Technology has grown immensely within the last few years, and we're starting to see its various effects on society's development. Obviously, many people have noticed the rapid advancements in equipment and software, but one aspect of technological growth is how it's changing the way we connect with one another. Because of the development of computers and software in general, we can now get connected to our doctors virtually. They can even treat certain conditions for us all through a screen.
It's hard to imagine that technology is starting to replace a fundamentally human-based interaction, but that's the direction it's trending. For right now, technology won't be able to replace in-person doctor visits completely, and you can argue that it will never reach that point. Even now, virtual doctors are limited as to what they can do, so the rest of this article will explain what kind of conditions they can treat and explain the general effectiveness of virtual doctors.
We should first begin discussing what kind of conditions a virtual doctor or nurse practitioner can treat because not many people are aware of virtual doctors. This concept is relatively new, and it has a lot of progression and development it would need to go through before it becomes a norm in society. Keeping that in mind, let's explain the different types of conditions most virtual doctors can treat.
Here's a list of general conditions virtual doctors can treat to give you an idea:
To summarize, you can get treatment for most conditions that you could get in person, but this is predominantly going to depend on which specific virtual doctors you visit and your specific condition. Not every one of your conditions will be treatable virtually, but most normal conditions that you could experience should be able to be at least evaluated by a virtual doctor.
To get a more detailed idea, we'll discuss the primary care and urgent care conditions a virtual doctor can treat.
Primary care involves treating conditions that are normally covered by healthcare providers; they typically involve on-going medical check-ups and disease prevention rather than treatment. But it also focuses on disease treatment and trying to subdue symptoms.
The most common ailments that people are familiar with include:
However, many more conditions can be treated virtually, and we'll discuss them in this section.
When it comes to treating allergies virtually, health care providers will typically only treat seasonal allergies, so they don't miss any chronic or lethal allergies. Seasonal allergy symptoms usually occur for a few months out of the year, and they can include:
Because seasonal allergies are not that severe, you can usually set up a virtual doctor appointment for a consultation pretty quickly, and the treatment can be given within a few visits at most. Most of the time, it will only take one quick, short visit.
Hypertension, also more commonly known as high blood pressure, can be a lot more severe than allergies, so this is one condition where you should already regularly monitor it. Still, it is possible to get this evaluated through a virtual doctor. It's possible to even have hypertension without experiencing any symptoms, so you might want to consider just setting up a virtual appointment anyway to be safe.
One of the more interesting conditions people may be surprised to learn can be evaluated with a virtual doctor is diabetes. If you have diabetes, then you most likely already have medical guidelines or medication that you're following, but it's nice to know that virtual doctors can help you with your condition. Virtual doctors can help with both types of diabetes, with regular check-ins and symptom management.
Virtual providers can help you deal with asthma through a consultation, and if the virtual doctors believe that you have the condition, they can prescribe an inhaler. This is one of those cases where you again should already have some sort of treatment in place if you have the condition. Still, if you feel like you may possibly need to be evaluated for asthma, a virtual doctor serves as a nice, convenient alternative.
Cholesterol is something that your body needs in order to function, but too much of it can cause serious health problems. Virtual physcians and APRN's give you the ability to receive a consultation to check if you have a high amount of cholesterol, and if you do, virtual doctors have the ability to give you the right treatment.
What makes this condition so unique is the fact that it really doesn't have any noticeable symptoms, so the only way to know if you have it or not is to get evaluated, so virtual doctors can provide you an easy way to get a consultation to discuss your alternatives.
Erectile Dysfunction is usually a taboo health condition. It isn't easily discussed, so virtual doctors help make it easier to discuss and evaluate because you can be very discrete about it. There are instances where you won't necessarily know who your doctor is personally, so it could be a lot less embarrassing, which is another reason why some people prefer telehealth over regular doctors.
When it comes to actually treating your erectile dysfunction, virtual doctors are mainly meant to help evaluate your condition and then recommend certain types of medication or treatment. There are surprisingly a lot of different types of medication you can take to help treat erectile dysfunction, and virtual doctors can prescribe the ones they think will work best for you.
Mental health is another touchy subject. The actual condition varies a lot from person to person, so it may be hard to believe that certain mental health problems can be evaluated by virtual doctors. It's good to know telehealth can be a viable option.
Virtual providers can help treat your mental health issues by prescribing certain medications after some consultation, in some cases, even on your first visit.
If medication isn't exactly what you need, online psychiatrists can help treat your mental problems more in-depth. Online therapy also serves as another option. Because mental health is so broad and complicated, it's nice to know that there are various options that you can choose from for your own personal situation.
Thyroid disorder is a very general problem, and there are several more specific complications when it comes to the thyroid gland. Because of that, virtual doctors become really valuable because they provide a nice way to get a quick consultation in order to diagnose what kind of problem you have.
Once the virtual doctors figure out what kind of problem you specifically have, they can prescribe you certain medication. Usually, virtual doctors will try to diagnose you with one of two common thyroid problems, but the procedure is subject to change depending on the person.
This conversation is very similar to erectile dysfunction in which the virtual doctor's main priority is to figure out what kind of medication works best for you. Not only are there a lot of different pills and medications you can choose from, but there are also many different types of methods in general that you can choose from for birth control.
Again, it may make it easier for people to discuss this kind of condition with a virtual doctor because there's a reduced level of intimacy due to the online communication. Also, once they decide what kind of treatment is right for the person, the prescription can be handled discretely, so the patient doesn't feel embarrassed.
HIV is one of the more specific conditions that a virtual doctor can actually help treat, and most healthcare providers have different options for medication that they can give you. They have certain types of treatment meant for those who haven't contracted the virus yet and those who already have the virus.
Depending on your situation, you'll get a different type of treatment, and the virtual specialists will guide you along the process. If you don't have the virus, they will typically prescribe you medication to help prevent you from contracting the virus, and if you do have the virus, they will give you medication that will help stop the spread of the virus within your body.
Headaches are a condition that many people experience, so virtual doctors can become a great treatment option because of how accessible virtual treatment is. However, virtual doctors aren't really effective for normal types of headaches. Still, if you're concerned or curious that you may have a serious type of headache, a virtual doctor appointment can help you diagnose your condition.
The general rule of thumb is that if your headache is significantly more severe or lasts longer than usual, you should consult a doctor. After that, your doctor will help you diagnose what kind of headache you have, which can include:
After the virtual doctors diagnose what kind of headache you have, they can start helping you by giving you treatment, and that can either be through medication or specific health advice.
Acne is another common condition that many people experience, but many people aren't really aware that you can go to virtual doctors for acne treatment. In some cases, you can even get treatment within a few minutes of your appointment. Acne is very different for everyone so that everyone would have a different experience. Still, virtual APRNs will help you diagnose your acne situation, and they can then give you treatment for whatever type or level of acne you have.
Urgent care involves treating certain conditions requiring immediate medical attention, but they aren't necessarily lethal or life-threatening. These conditions are more severe than those covered by primary care, so there's a wider variety of them that can be treated by virtual doctors.
The most common urgent care conditions include:
However there are a lot more infections and conditions that can be covered by virtual healthcare.
These conditions follow the same procedure as the conditions mentioned above discussed in the primary care section, so we should talk about the different types of infections and diseases covered by virtual doctors that fall under urgent care. To summarize, urgent care conditions include severe:
The most prominent conditions that virtual doctors can deal with are the different types of infections. They vary in severity, but an infection of any kind is not good, and virtual doctors can help consult, diagnose, and treat the most common kinds of infections. The experience will be different for every patient, but they should be comforted by the fact that their infection will most likely be covered.
All the notable infections include:
Obviously, all these infections are very different from one another, but they're fundamentally the same type of medical issue. The most important thing when it comes to treating infections is that you start early, and you regularly monitor it. This is why using a virtual provider to help treat infections can be so effective. It's convenient to not only set up the initial appointment once you feel like you need medical attention, but it's also easy and convenient to monitor with regular follow-ups.
A lot of people believe that you should visit a physical doctor's office when a situation this serious happens to you, and they're definitely entitled to believe that, but using a virtual medical provider to treat your medical conditions can definitely provide a lot of positives that many people don't realize at first glance.
Another condition that virtual APRN's can help treat are diseases. Diseases are very related to infections; in many cases, diseases are often defined as cell damage caused by an initial infection. However you classify it, you should be confident that a virtual doctor can help you deal with the situation.
The most common disease that virtual doctors can treat include:
If diseases happen after an infection has occurred, it's really important to continually monitor your condition because if it's left untreated, it can get significantly worse. Virtual doctors not only have the ability to prevent diseases from happening in the first place, but they can help stop them from continuing to affect you, and most of the time, treatment can be evaluated with a few quick consultation appointments.
Discomfort is the broadest category of conditions that virtual doctors can treat. In many cases, what may seem like mild discomfort for a certain patient can turn out to be a significant health problem if it doesn't get evaluated. Discomfort can be perfect for virtual doctors because you set up an appointment so easily and quickly, and if it turns out to be nothing, then it's nothing. If it turns out to be serious, then it's good you caught it.
If you dedicate effort to set up a physical doctor's office appointment and it turns out that your discomfort was never anything serious, you may feel like you wasted your time and also the doctor's time. Plus, it's much easier with a virtual doctor to set up recurring check-ups and appointments.
The most common types of discomfort that can be evaluated by virtual doctors include:
Many people may be hesitant to use virtual doctors, which is perfectly valid in many situations. It may be more convenient for people to visit doctors in person rather than virtually in many cases. Still, for the people who are just not aware of virtual doctors, they must understand the benefits and drawbacks of using virtual doctors.
In general, people use virtual doctors because it's:
Typically virtual doctors are an upside, but we should explain more in detail and discuss some negatives.
The biggest factor when it comes to people using virtual doctors is because of how accessible it is. People don't have to meet doctors in person, and they have a wide variety of services to choose from, so it's really convenient. The only legitimate logistical issue you would have to deal with is just scheduling an appointment, but that's something you would have to do with a physical doctor's office anyway.
Another point that some people forget to consider is that there are people out there who don't have access to healthcare or are very hard/limited for them. For many, virtual doctors are a luxury, but for many other people, it's the only way that they can get medical treatment in any way. This may be because people simply live far from a hospital or care center, but some people just don't have any access, like those living in extremely rural areas or developing countries.
There are also some cases where people have busy schedules, or it's very hard for them to physically go to a doctor, so virtual doctors provide a great alternative. And because it's done virtually, you could theoretically visit any doctor in the world that you need to take care of your medical conditions.
For the most part, virtual provider visits are often less expensive because there's no physical communication taking place, and it's all online. Not only would it cost less for the patient, but it would also be more cost-efficient for the providers to run because they wouldn't need an entire physical setup.
Another point worth mentioning is that since virtual doctors are quick and convenient to visit, many virtual doctors ask their patients to have regular follow-up visits without an extra charge, so in many cases, patients can have multiple visits at a cheaper cost.
Now the biggest negative that people have towards virtual doctors is the fact that they're not in-person, which obviously makes sense. It may be more convenient to have virtual visits, but the fact that you're not face-to-face with your doctor can affect the overall experience. It may cost you the full level of quality that you would normally get when physically visiting a doctor, and it just might be harder to communicate in the first place.
You also have to keep in mind that virtual doctors can't assess everything through a screen, so the patient needs to take on a larger role. Frequently patients are going to need some computer expertise in order to make sure the process runs smoothly. This is also on top of the fact that virtual doctors are not guaranteed to provide treatment for whatever condition you may have, so this point becomes very significant when people begin evaluating whether or not they want to visit a doctor virtually.
When considering whether or not to visit a doctor virtually, a good rule of thumb is if you need genuine, quality evaluation or treatment, you should probably consider actually visiting a physical doctor's office. If you have a short-term condition that can be treated in quick, short visits, you might want to consider using a virtual doctor if you're willing to sacrifice genuine human interaction. It will all depend on your specific situation and priorities.
To have virtual doctor appointments, we have to use computers as a medium for communication. The actual method in which you conduct virtual doctor visits will depend on the medical center you're using. For the most part, you're probably going to be doing some sort of video call to talk with the doctor, and if not that, then probably some sort of live chat. Besides the actual method of communication, virtual doctor visits are conducted in certain ways.
The three main methods are:
This type of visit doesn't require the patient and the doctors to be on the call simultaneously; instead, they send each other information and just wait for the other party to respond. Think of it as sending emails back and forth rather than straight-up video calling. This is often the most convenient method for many people, and it provides a nice, casual way to visit because it requires the last logistical commitment.
Asynchronous communication is also called store-and-forward because doctors will forward and share the relevant patient info between other doctors and the patient themselves. Again, this doesn't require the patients and doctors to be available while the information is being sent, allowing the information to be sent more quickly between parties.
This kind of communication is a hybrid between synchronous and asynchronous because this method allows doctors to continuously monitor their patient's information. If they ever need to do something, the doctors have the ability to do so. The way doctors monitor the patient's health can be through certain wearable medical devices like fitness watches, allowing the patient to live their lives normally.
In some ways, this method is even more convenient than asynchronous because the patient essentially doesn't need to monitor or do anything; the doctors handle those responsibilities, and if the patient ever has any questions or concerns, they still can reach out and contact their virtual doctor.
The last type of virtual interaction is synchronous, and you should be able to figure out that this kind of communication requires the patient and the doctor to be on and talking at the same time. Now some may see this as the most inconvenient method, but there are benefits to real-time communication. This is where you'll most likely get the most genuine treatment/advice because you'll be talking with your doctor in real-time and have a fluid conversation.
Depending on the type of condition you have, this could be vital to ensuring that you get the best treatment you can. For most people, this will probably be the type of communication you use at first. Depending on the nature of your visits and scheduling, you'll most likely use synchronous communication for the rest of your visits.
Virtual telehealth is a relatively new field that's starting to emerge and become popular in society. Its greatest limitation is that not many people are aware of it, and some of the few that are aware of its existence are hesitant to use it for various reasons. Many of those reasons are completely valid, and it's hard to imagine that virtual doctors will completely replace physical doctor visits.
If you're hesitant to start looking at virtual doctors as a medical option because you believe that they don't offer treatment for many conditions, you should know that virtual doctors can actually diagnose and treat a lot of conditions that would apply to almost anybody.
On top of that, virtual doctors can provide many consultation options that can fit anyone's schedule or medical needs. If you're ever in doubt over whether or not you think your condition is treatable virtually, you can always either conduct an online search or simply ask your healthcare center.
Sources:
https://evisit.com/resources/what-is-telemedicine/
https://www.unitypoint.org/waterloo/article.aspx?id=125034a7-da65-4db1-8056-eb53a5efd713
