One of the well-known obstacles of telemedicine is that although doctors can examine information on a person's skin from the photos sent, or find out that a person has pale skin, etc., patients cannot always see the photos. Check your ears or your blood pressure easily through medical systems and send the information to doctors. Although doctors have high confidence in the competence level of patients and they ask patients to measure their blood pressure and pulse at home and send it to doctors if they have smart health measuring devices or technologies.
CyberMed wants to combine IoT and Telemedicine and allow people to use medical devices made for the company's patients. People purchase items such as digital stethoscopes or pulse oximeters and may have their costs covered by insurance, then use them in their next virtual appointments with their doctor. The collected information is transferred to the cloud for almost instantaneous evaluation by the doctor.
Wearability and data quality are two challenges that IoT and Telemedicine face and are related to each other. After all, if someone doesn't wear an IoT device or misuses it, the data quality will be wrong or misleading. The CyberMed approach tries to address the wearability and quality of the obtained data by enabling doctors without the need for constant use of medical devices. In addition, a person can ask the health care provider at the same time for guidance on how to use the wearable medical devices to get the best results from their health data.
Telemedicine is already on the market. IoT is helping to evolve patient care, faster than ever. Soon, people will have more treatment options and may not even need to leave their homes to receive medical care. Soon, the need to drive to a doctor's appointment and sit in a waiting room could be rare.
Real-time monitoring is nothing new and is already helping today's doctors make informed diagnoses. For example, a doctor may not detect a cardiac arrhythmia in the exam room, but a patient may be asked to wear a Holter monitor for 24 hours or more to monitor their health and share with doctors.
The situation above may still exist in the IoT era, but technology has made it possible for people to have more control over their health — especially when it comes to going to the doctor's office. People may be able to choose to connect to a doctor via telemedicine instead of panicking and driving to urgent care facilities in non-emergencies.
CliniCare sells a stethoscope and thermometer for home use. The technology appears to be similar to the tools used by CyberMed, but the difference is that a more proactive approach can be taken before going to a medical center. CliniCare products connect to an app that measures changes in heart rate, breathing patterns, and body temperature.
In addition, CliniCare partnered with Doctor On Demand, meaning users will soon be able to access remote medical care while using IoT devices. If a person is concerned about their health information, they can schedule a telemedicine visit. The CliniCare app easily transfers your data to a remote provider or other physician as needed.
Doctor On Demand also offers a flat rate for patient visits, which helps people get funding if they don't have insurance. Currently, many people refuse to accept medical services or visits by a doctor due to planning issues, fear of not being able to pay the costs. Telemedicine alleviates these challenges while IoT allows for better monitoring, which can be rare in emergency cases.