BOISE, Idaho — The Health Industry is constantly changing and now the virtual world has really taken hold.
- Virtual health is becoming as common as your face-to-face appointments in your doctor’s office.
- Virtual care provides a bridge between a patient and a clinician that can be overcome when the ability to meet in three dimensions isn’t there.
- Options include, telephones, smart phones, computers, or tablets
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
Dr. Daniel Meltzer with Regence/Blue Shield says virtual medicine has been in the works for years, but Covid 19 forced the healthcare industry to be more accessible and efficient. “Virtual care provides a bridge if you will between a patient and a clinician that can be overcome when the ability to meet in three dimensions isn’t there.”
When Dr. Meltzer refers to three dimension he means meeting the old-fashioned way: Face to Face. And could be for a number of reasons, from geography, time of day, and even social isolation. “Sometimes it’s hard to get in to see your doctor maybe your doctor is 20, 30 minutes an hour away so it’s a great augment for example to review some tests that get back to you, if you have questions about your medications you know you might say doctor I forgot to talk about that it’s a great conduit to build that relationship."
So what are the options for virtual visits? Meltzer explains. “It’s telephones. It’s smartphones, it’s computers, it’s tablets any kind of care that delivered outside of the three dimensional benefit that we have right now.
So will virtual medicine ever replace person-to-person visits, Dr. Meltzer says no, but you will see more of it.
