Smartphones Help People Over Remote Distance In Medical Assistance

Smartphones are getting new and new use on a daily basis in the medical field. The camera feature in smartphones that provides high-resolution images is now being used by doctors to check patients who had abdominal surgery, more specifically surgical site infection (SSI).

Smartphones Help People Over Remote Distance In Medical Assistance

These images help doctors to treat them rather than visiting the hospitals and taking time. This also helps in early diagnosis before the infection has progressed a lot.

Kenneth Mclean from the University of Edinburg stated that since the covid 19 pandemic many people and doctors are relying on smartphones and other technologies for remote diagnosis.

He stated that earlier there were difficulties in understanding the patients and conveying them the results however now both parties have got used to this new way and the results are really good.

Remote consultation is best for people undergoing recovery as they need not travel to the hospital and have the risk of getting infected. Doctors can also monitor the wounds through live video as well.

A study was also conducted in this wherein 492 patients had enrolled also known as the TWIST trail. As many as 223 patients were asked to provide consolation through the online medium for their recovery after laparoscopy.

Other 269 patients were asked for in-person consultation for their recovery. The online consultation was done on 3,7 and 15th day. If any person found some issues with their wound, they were asked to upload an image to a secure site which would then be checked by a special team of surgeons. These people were also checked after 30 days to see if they have been diagnosed with SSI.

While in online consultation people were contacted on 3,7 and 15^th day, for in-person consultation was done after 30 days. It has been found that 7.4% of people for online consultation developed SSI while for in-person consultation the rate was 9.4%.

Even though there was not much difference in the total number the main thing that needs to be understood here is that the people who received online consultation were diagnosed first, as the surgeons knew about their condition.

Many of the researchers and doctors are pushing for remote consultation as this saves time and effort of both parties. However, there are many other factors involved in this as well.

Many people are not aware on how to use the technology, even though they seem simple but they feel more confident when they have an in-person consultation with the doctor. Many others said that even though remote consult is always better but sometimes the doctor needs to touch and feel so that they have a better understanding of the issue.

Another issue that the remote session has is the signal strength during a live video call. If the person stays away from the city limits the video quality during call won’t be good which could also cause issues in diagnosing the patient. Prescription can be mailed by the doctor to the patients and they can just print it or show the digital copy at the chemist to get their drugs.

During the covid 19 pandemic remote technological advancement has greatly helped patients to connect with the doctors. This has also led to the creation of many platforms which provide reliable and fast consult as well.

Many doctors and health care professionals state that in near future more and better technological developments will make diagnosis much better.

Many new software is being built for the mobile platform to support medical applications as well and most of them are being made free so that people can use them.